Alfonso was annoyed by Raphael's intrusion, but he did not show it. Instead, he politely asked for permission.
“Would you please yield to the passengers?”
He glanced at Ariadne. All he could see was her crown, her black hair rippling with her breath.
“The Countess seems a little drunk, so I’ll take her out for a walk and let her get some fresh air until she wakes up.”
But Raphael did not back down.
“So here’s what I’m saying to you.”
Raphael's voice, which had been nothing more than a grumble until now, began to show anger.
“Isn’t it the proper attitude of a partner to leave a drunken single woman in the care of a married man to wander around a secluded garden with no one around? Isn’t that right, Your Highness?”
Alfonso felt his throat tighten.
He had nothing to say except the usual excuse to trust him because he wasn't that kind of person. And Raphael knew Alfonso too well.
“Ah, that’s what you were trying to say just now: ‘Trust me and let me go.’”
He blocked the stairs they were about to go down with his body, arms linked.
“I’ve used up all your credit, you rascal. Even if you take money from a woman and pretend not to know, you’ll be treated like human garbage.”
Raphael looked Alfonso up and down.
With his neatly combed golden hair and cream-colored robes, Prince Alfonso looked like the most sought-after monarch in the Central Continent.
From his neatly angled, broad shoulders to his chest that looked like it would burst out of his tailored suit, to his neat demeanor, there was not a single thing objectively flawless about him.
That only fueled Raphael's anger.
“What good is it if you have such a shiny shell? Let’s look at your actions objectively. You’re a married man who tried to seduce a single woman, and you’re a thug who embezzled her money! Even the pillar of the courtiers wouldn’t do something like that!”
Alfonso, who had been silently listening to his friend's verbal abuse, opened his mouth in a hoarse voice.
“I don’t think this is the place to talk about it, but since we’re on the subject, I guess I’ll ask.”
In fact, he had contacted Raphael right after questioning Elko and asked to meet.
He couldn't completely believe Elko's excuses, so he wanted to hear the other side of the story.
But Raphael's reply was just one line, 'Attaccati a sto cazzo'. It was a sentence with genitals in it, and it basically meant 'Try to do it yourself'.
“What do you mean by the gold Ariadne sent me?”
As soon as he heard those words, Raphael's pale face became bright red and flushed.
Just like last time, Raphael was so excited that they couldn't talk, and it seemed like it was going to turn into a fight.
Alfonso suppressed his rising irritation. He had to keep at least one person in line. He spoke calmly once more.
“Tell me more precisely.”
As it happened, Ariadne herself was there. Fortunately, her presence stopped Raphael from spewing curses.
"Of course."
Raphael spat out in a tone of disbelief.
“The 10,000 ducats I brought must be the gold that Ari sent!”
He added for his old friend, who was incredibly stupid.
“The same goes for the 90,000 ducats I sent through the upper and Holy Nation branches since then! A total of 100,000 ducats! You are a national-level thief, you piece of trash!”
And it was precisely the gold that Elko had claimed the Kingdom of Gallico had given him. Alfonso slowly turned to Ariadne.
“Is this true, Ari?”
He added, his voice trembling.
“The 100,000 ducats I received as military funds... was it your gold?”
Ariadne blinked in bewilderment.
“Really... you didn’t know?”
It felt like all the intoxication had gone away. Ariadne had guessed that the exchange of letters had been a bit turbulent, but she had never imagined that it would be so cleanly cut off.
“Is this really your gold...!”
An agitated Alfonso asked her again.
Alfonso's mind crossed between the boastful Elko and the elaborate ledgers he had brought with him and the image of Lariesa, who had been bringing him food while he was imprisoned in Gallico.
“That is...”
Ariadne had many thoughts. She couldn't finish her words and kept mumbling.
She had to tell him. Even when she told Alfonso in the Star Room not to approach her again, that was on her mind.
"Ari!"
Raphael shouted from the side.
“Tell him! You are who sending the gold!”
Raphael's questioning helped her decide: Alfonso had a right to know where the gold came from.
“...Raphael.”
Ariadne sighed, her mind set on something. She looked back at Raphael.
“Could you please step aside for a moment?”
Alfonso would be shocked if he found out. Then again, he might have thought it was better to remain ignorant.
But Ariadne was not his guardian.
Whether he regretted it or not, whether he hated the owner of the gold when he found out how it came to be, it was something Alfonso had to face and decide for himself.
Ariadne's voice pronounced sentence upon Raphael.
“I think the two of us have something to talk about.”
Raphael looked as if he had been hit in the back of the head with a hammer. He blinked his red rabbit eyes for a moment but soon became angry.
"Ari!"
Raphael pointed at Alfonso.
“That traitor! What more do you have to say?!”
Raphael couldn't understand it at all. He had given everything for Ariadne. His time, his sincerity, his heart, his purity.
Above all, he had never betrayed her. In Raphael's opinion, that was the biggest difference between him and Alfonso.
It's crazy to choose a man who betrays her faith over a man who only looks at her.
“It’s dangerous, don’t go! Why are you following him?”
Ariadne slowly raised her head. Dark eyes beneath her black eyelashes stared at Raphael.
When Ariadne looked at him, Raphael beat his chest.
“Stay here with me!”
Raphael was excited. It wasn't a story he wanted to hear, but he felt he couldn't convince her unless he told it to some extent.
“...Raphael. Those 100,000 gold ducats are not mine.”
Raphael's mouth opened. Ariadne spoke again to him, who was speechless.
“I have something to talk to Alfonso alone. I’ll be back shortly.”
Leaving Raphael behind, who had become quiet, Ariadne grabbed Alfonso's sleeve and pulled him.
Sir Manfredi hasn't been feeling well for the past few days.
He was left guarding the palace, unable to join in the fun that was to come when Prince Alfonso was threatening the Marquis of Guatieri—Sir Manfredi had imagined that Alfonso might even grab the Marquis by the collar.
“I said it’s a guard dog, a guard dog!”
He grumbled to Sir Bernardino like that and ended up not being able to attend Princess Bianca's debutante ball, the highlight of the first half of the year.
Because he had been chosen for duty. The knights, including Dino, laughed and teased him, holding their stomachs.
“Bark, Manfredi! Woof woof!”
“Because you keep making noises like a watchdog, you’ll keep getting caught guarding the house!”
Prince Alfonso entrusted the task of guarding Sir Elko to the knights he trusted most.
They took turns standing at a distance, keeping watch around Sir Elko. Today, it was Sir Manfredi's turn.
It was just a bunch of complaints that didn't even make up for the initial investment.
“Oh, shit, nothing’s going right.”
Sir Manfredi scratched the back of his head.
“That guy just stays locked in his room all day and doesn’t do anything. He’s crying so much that I have to ask him if he’s drinking water. The person he should be assigned to is not a security guard, but a nanny...”
Sir Manfredi, who had been muttering alone, saw Sir Elko's door quietly opening.
Sir Manfredi immediately shut his mouth and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. He watched the door opening sharply like a well-forged sword.
Squeak.
What emerged from there was Sir Elko himself, wearing a brown hood over his head.
He looked around, made sure there was no one nearby, and then ran down the hallway with hushed steps.
“..!”
Sir Manfredi jumped up from his seat and started running after Sir Elko without making a sound.
The place Ariadne took Alfonso to was not the garden spread out in the back garden. Instead, her footsteps were headed toward the main gate, which was crowded with people.
“Where are you going? Do you want to be seen by others?”
Ariadne gave only a short answer to Alfonso's question.
“Just follow me. You have somewhere to go with me right now.”
Luckily, Bianca's party was still in full swing.
Since they were the only ones leaving the ballroom, Ariadne and Alfonso didn't run into any familiar faces.
Arriving at the main gate, she hailed the de Mare family's carriage, which arrived shortly.
"Get on."
If the nobles had seen this, they would have made a fuss about kidnapping the heir to the throne, but Alfonso silently climbed on board.
She wanted to kidnap him, but she didn't have the physical strength to kidnap him. But physical strength isn't the only thing that can move people to action.
While Alfonso was pondering this inexplicable attraction, Ariadne whispered her destination to her coachman.
“...”
“Yes, Countess.”
The carriage didn't run long. After traveling along the city roads for less than 30 minutes, it arrived in front of a large building in a shabby neighborhood.
The carriage passed through the outer gate and entered the forecourt.
“This is...”
It was a place Alfonso was familiar with. Behind the stone building, he could see a familiar garden. Ariadne nodded.
“...Rambouillet Relief Home.”
The carriage stopped in front of a side door on the side of the building, not the main entrance.
Ariadne got out of the carriage, took out a small key, opened the door, and went inside the hospice, still holding onto Alfonso's sleeve.
Ariadne knew all the ways that were not noticed by others.
She took Alfonso up to the top floor, to the director's office.
Ariadne, who had left the Prince in the study, knelt down in the corner of the innermost wall and began manipulating something.
“Ari? What are you doing?”
She didn't answer. After seventeen turns of the metal plate, a click, as if something had been released, reverberated through the high-ceilinged office.
Only then did Ariadne turn around and call Alfonso.
“Come here and open this for me.”
What she was pointing to was a round handle. After he turned the handle and pulled the door with all his might, the heavy iron door slowly began to open.
Kiriririk!
Ariadne waited for him, standing in a position where the angle of opening was increasing, as if she were a guide.
As Alfonso opened the door and turned to her, Ariadne pointed inside.
“Come in and take a look.”
Alfonso walked slowly inside. There was an oil lamp prepared inside.
He lit it with the tinder he had lying nearby, and it became bright enough to examine the interior.
He looked around. The only thing left in the warehouse was an envelope. Alfonso went over and picked it up.
When he took out what was inside, he found something like a letter. He unfolded the paper and began to read.
"My beloved son Alfonso."
'Oh my god...!'
Alfonso's eyes widened at his mother's handwriting, which appeared in a completely unexpected place.
"I hope you never see this letter, that I can hand you this money with my own hands, or rather, that these funds will never be spent."
As he read each sentence, his lips became dry. He didn't even have time to swallow his saliva.
“This mother is a sinner. She was blinded by the well-being of her children and decided to starve the sick and the weak to death... But in the end, at the end of the day, what I see before my eyes are the innocent eyes of my children.”
The Prince's hands trembled.
'This is... What..?'
But he couldn't stop reading. As his mother's letter progressed, her handwriting became increasingly worse.
"I don't care what happens to my life... My husband is blinded by love... The investigation will not be conducted... "
What followed were detailed accounts of her marriage, her fears about life-threatening situations, the pressures she felt, and the things she did to protect her son.
“Oh my god...”
The Prince fell to his knees in the empty space, hot tears streaming down his eyes.
It was natural that the bill from the money lord asking for payment for the military funds never arrived.
His military funds were neither the money made available by Cardinal de Mare from the Holy See nor the money sent by the Grand Duchess of Lariesa from the Gallico kingdom.
It was something his dead mother had prepared for him.
It was the last greeting from the person who gave him unconditional love.
“Would you please yield to the passengers?”
He glanced at Ariadne. All he could see was her crown, her black hair rippling with her breath.
“The Countess seems a little drunk, so I’ll take her out for a walk and let her get some fresh air until she wakes up.”
But Raphael did not back down.
“So here’s what I’m saying to you.”
Raphael's voice, which had been nothing more than a grumble until now, began to show anger.
“Isn’t it the proper attitude of a partner to leave a drunken single woman in the care of a married man to wander around a secluded garden with no one around? Isn’t that right, Your Highness?”
Alfonso felt his throat tighten.
He had nothing to say except the usual excuse to trust him because he wasn't that kind of person. And Raphael knew Alfonso too well.
“Ah, that’s what you were trying to say just now: ‘Trust me and let me go.’”
He blocked the stairs they were about to go down with his body, arms linked.
“I’ve used up all your credit, you rascal. Even if you take money from a woman and pretend not to know, you’ll be treated like human garbage.”
Raphael looked Alfonso up and down.
With his neatly combed golden hair and cream-colored robes, Prince Alfonso looked like the most sought-after monarch in the Central Continent.
From his neatly angled, broad shoulders to his chest that looked like it would burst out of his tailored suit, to his neat demeanor, there was not a single thing objectively flawless about him.
That only fueled Raphael's anger.
“What good is it if you have such a shiny shell? Let’s look at your actions objectively. You’re a married man who tried to seduce a single woman, and you’re a thug who embezzled her money! Even the pillar of the courtiers wouldn’t do something like that!”
Alfonso, who had been silently listening to his friend's verbal abuse, opened his mouth in a hoarse voice.
“I don’t think this is the place to talk about it, but since we’re on the subject, I guess I’ll ask.”
In fact, he had contacted Raphael right after questioning Elko and asked to meet.
He couldn't completely believe Elko's excuses, so he wanted to hear the other side of the story.
But Raphael's reply was just one line, 'Attaccati a sto cazzo'. It was a sentence with genitals in it, and it basically meant 'Try to do it yourself'.
“What do you mean by the gold Ariadne sent me?”
As soon as he heard those words, Raphael's pale face became bright red and flushed.
Just like last time, Raphael was so excited that they couldn't talk, and it seemed like it was going to turn into a fight.
Alfonso suppressed his rising irritation. He had to keep at least one person in line. He spoke calmly once more.
“Tell me more precisely.”
As it happened, Ariadne herself was there. Fortunately, her presence stopped Raphael from spewing curses.
"Of course."
Raphael spat out in a tone of disbelief.
“The 10,000 ducats I brought must be the gold that Ari sent!”
He added for his old friend, who was incredibly stupid.
“The same goes for the 90,000 ducats I sent through the upper and Holy Nation branches since then! A total of 100,000 ducats! You are a national-level thief, you piece of trash!”
And it was precisely the gold that Elko had claimed the Kingdom of Gallico had given him. Alfonso slowly turned to Ariadne.
“Is this true, Ari?”
He added, his voice trembling.
“The 100,000 ducats I received as military funds... was it your gold?”
Ariadne blinked in bewilderment.
“Really... you didn’t know?”
It felt like all the intoxication had gone away. Ariadne had guessed that the exchange of letters had been a bit turbulent, but she had never imagined that it would be so cleanly cut off.
“Is this really your gold...!”
An agitated Alfonso asked her again.
Alfonso's mind crossed between the boastful Elko and the elaborate ledgers he had brought with him and the image of Lariesa, who had been bringing him food while he was imprisoned in Gallico.
“That is...”
Ariadne had many thoughts. She couldn't finish her words and kept mumbling.
She had to tell him. Even when she told Alfonso in the Star Room not to approach her again, that was on her mind.
"Ari!"
Raphael shouted from the side.
“Tell him! You are who sending the gold!”
Raphael's questioning helped her decide: Alfonso had a right to know where the gold came from.
“...Raphael.”
Ariadne sighed, her mind set on something. She looked back at Raphael.
“Could you please step aside for a moment?”
Alfonso would be shocked if he found out. Then again, he might have thought it was better to remain ignorant.
But Ariadne was not his guardian.
Whether he regretted it or not, whether he hated the owner of the gold when he found out how it came to be, it was something Alfonso had to face and decide for himself.
Ariadne's voice pronounced sentence upon Raphael.
“I think the two of us have something to talk about.”
Raphael looked as if he had been hit in the back of the head with a hammer. He blinked his red rabbit eyes for a moment but soon became angry.
"Ari!"
Raphael pointed at Alfonso.
“That traitor! What more do you have to say?!”
Raphael couldn't understand it at all. He had given everything for Ariadne. His time, his sincerity, his heart, his purity.
Above all, he had never betrayed her. In Raphael's opinion, that was the biggest difference between him and Alfonso.
It's crazy to choose a man who betrays her faith over a man who only looks at her.
“It’s dangerous, don’t go! Why are you following him?”
Ariadne slowly raised her head. Dark eyes beneath her black eyelashes stared at Raphael.
When Ariadne looked at him, Raphael beat his chest.
“Stay here with me!”
Raphael was excited. It wasn't a story he wanted to hear, but he felt he couldn't convince her unless he told it to some extent.
“...Raphael. Those 100,000 gold ducats are not mine.”
Raphael's mouth opened. Ariadne spoke again to him, who was speechless.
“I have something to talk to Alfonso alone. I’ll be back shortly.”
Leaving Raphael behind, who had become quiet, Ariadne grabbed Alfonso's sleeve and pulled him.
***
Sir Manfredi hasn't been feeling well for the past few days.
He was left guarding the palace, unable to join in the fun that was to come when Prince Alfonso was threatening the Marquis of Guatieri—Sir Manfredi had imagined that Alfonso might even grab the Marquis by the collar.
“I said it’s a guard dog, a guard dog!”
He grumbled to Sir Bernardino like that and ended up not being able to attend Princess Bianca's debutante ball, the highlight of the first half of the year.
Because he had been chosen for duty. The knights, including Dino, laughed and teased him, holding their stomachs.
“Bark, Manfredi! Woof woof!”
“Because you keep making noises like a watchdog, you’ll keep getting caught guarding the house!”
Prince Alfonso entrusted the task of guarding Sir Elko to the knights he trusted most.
They took turns standing at a distance, keeping watch around Sir Elko. Today, it was Sir Manfredi's turn.
It was just a bunch of complaints that didn't even make up for the initial investment.
“Oh, shit, nothing’s going right.”
Sir Manfredi scratched the back of his head.
“That guy just stays locked in his room all day and doesn’t do anything. He’s crying so much that I have to ask him if he’s drinking water. The person he should be assigned to is not a security guard, but a nanny...”
Sir Manfredi, who had been muttering alone, saw Sir Elko's door quietly opening.
Sir Manfredi immediately shut his mouth and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. He watched the door opening sharply like a well-forged sword.
Squeak.
What emerged from there was Sir Elko himself, wearing a brown hood over his head.
He looked around, made sure there was no one nearby, and then ran down the hallway with hushed steps.
“..!”
Sir Manfredi jumped up from his seat and started running after Sir Elko without making a sound.
***
The place Ariadne took Alfonso to was not the garden spread out in the back garden. Instead, her footsteps were headed toward the main gate, which was crowded with people.
“Where are you going? Do you want to be seen by others?”
Ariadne gave only a short answer to Alfonso's question.
“Just follow me. You have somewhere to go with me right now.”
Luckily, Bianca's party was still in full swing.
Since they were the only ones leaving the ballroom, Ariadne and Alfonso didn't run into any familiar faces.
Arriving at the main gate, she hailed the de Mare family's carriage, which arrived shortly.
"Get on."
If the nobles had seen this, they would have made a fuss about kidnapping the heir to the throne, but Alfonso silently climbed on board.
She wanted to kidnap him, but she didn't have the physical strength to kidnap him. But physical strength isn't the only thing that can move people to action.
While Alfonso was pondering this inexplicable attraction, Ariadne whispered her destination to her coachman.
“...”
“Yes, Countess.”
The carriage didn't run long. After traveling along the city roads for less than 30 minutes, it arrived in front of a large building in a shabby neighborhood.
The carriage passed through the outer gate and entered the forecourt.
“This is...”
It was a place Alfonso was familiar with. Behind the stone building, he could see a familiar garden. Ariadne nodded.
“...Rambouillet Relief Home.”
The carriage stopped in front of a side door on the side of the building, not the main entrance.
Ariadne got out of the carriage, took out a small key, opened the door, and went inside the hospice, still holding onto Alfonso's sleeve.
Ariadne knew all the ways that were not noticed by others.
She took Alfonso up to the top floor, to the director's office.
Ariadne, who had left the Prince in the study, knelt down in the corner of the innermost wall and began manipulating something.
“Ari? What are you doing?”
She didn't answer. After seventeen turns of the metal plate, a click, as if something had been released, reverberated through the high-ceilinged office.
Only then did Ariadne turn around and call Alfonso.
“Come here and open this for me.”
What she was pointing to was a round handle. After he turned the handle and pulled the door with all his might, the heavy iron door slowly began to open.
Kiriririk!
Ariadne waited for him, standing in a position where the angle of opening was increasing, as if she were a guide.
As Alfonso opened the door and turned to her, Ariadne pointed inside.
“Come in and take a look.”
Alfonso walked slowly inside. There was an oil lamp prepared inside.
He lit it with the tinder he had lying nearby, and it became bright enough to examine the interior.
Inside the door was a large cavity, about 5 bispes (about 60 square meters). It looked like a warehouse where something was stored, but it was now empty.
When he took out what was inside, he found something like a letter. He unfolded the paper and began to read.
"My beloved son Alfonso."
'Oh my god...!'
Alfonso's eyes widened at his mother's handwriting, which appeared in a completely unexpected place.
"I hope you never see this letter, that I can hand you this money with my own hands, or rather, that these funds will never be spent."
As he read each sentence, his lips became dry. He didn't even have time to swallow his saliva.
“This mother is a sinner. She was blinded by the well-being of her children and decided to starve the sick and the weak to death... But in the end, at the end of the day, what I see before my eyes are the innocent eyes of my children.”
The Prince's hands trembled.
'This is... What..?'
But he couldn't stop reading. As his mother's letter progressed, her handwriting became increasingly worse.
"I don't care what happens to my life... My husband is blinded by love... The investigation will not be conducted... "
What followed were detailed accounts of her marriage, her fears about life-threatening situations, the pressures she felt, and the things she did to protect her son.
“Oh my god...”
The Prince fell to his knees in the empty space, hot tears streaming down his eyes.
It was natural that the bill from the money lord asking for payment for the military funds never arrived.
His military funds were neither the money made available by Cardinal de Mare from the Holy See nor the money sent by the Grand Duchess of Lariesa from the Gallico kingdom.
It was something his dead mother had prepared for him.
It was the last greeting from the person who gave him unconditional love.
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