The one who was angry and rebuked Baroness Loredan and her party was Cornelia's younger sister, Bedelia.
“The Prince himself has revealed that he is seeing Countess de Mare, so who on earth would have thought to speculate that they are not dating?”
Miss Bedelia glanced at Baroness Loredan.
Baroness Loredan fanned her face with her fan, exclaiming, "Oh my!" but could not say anything to Miss Bedelia.
Miss Bedelia spewed out her words at him like a machine gun.
“You’re not saying that Countess de Mare used black magic to force the Prince to say that they’re dating, are you?! The Prince said it himself! You know that accusations of using black magic are a very serious matter!”
Ariadne stuck out her tongue as she watched Miss Bedelia from afar. Her driving skills were no ordinary skill.
Baroness Loredan kept repeating 'Oh my, oh my, oh my, oh my' but couldn't say anything.
It was just a casual remark like 'if not, then forget it', so she had nothing to say.
This was Miss Bedelia's home ground. It was full of people who were sympathetic to the Rinaldi family.
In the midst of this, people who did not like the talkative Baroness Loredan and those who were simply enjoying the atmosphere of one-sided harassment intervened.
“You say you don’t know why we’re dating, but I can tell just by looking at you.”
“That kind of talk is usually jealousy. Why would someone who is not better than me or my daughter date a Prince?”
There were a few laughs, probably about Baroness Loredan and her daughter. Someone made a pointed remark.
“I guess there are no mirrors in Loredan Mansion.”
It was a silent rebuke, telling you to look in the mirror. Someone else threw it in with a laugh.
“There must be no family tree.”
The accusation was that the Baron did not know his place and was being rude to the Countess.
As the atmosphere gradually became tense, Cornelia, who had been watching the situation anxiously, intervened.
“Countess de Mare, aren’t you so beautiful?”
It was an unspoken suggestion to say the same thing with pretty and nice words.
Fortunately, they were all educated people, so they quickly smiled and joined in Cornelia's cause.
“Of course! Guiti can’t even speak.”
“How’s your body?”
An old lady congratulated him.
“If I had that body 20 years ago, I would have gone to balls every night.”
When the conversation seemed to be going in an ambiguous direction, someone quickly picked it up. That was the power of social circles.
Even if they just roughly got together, there was an unspoken agreement about what the 'right' thing to say was, so no major accidents occurred.
“It’s not easy to be so elegant and charming, I would fall for her even if I were a Prince.”
Among the guests were quite a few old ladies who were acquaintances of Countess Rinaldi.
They continued to praise Ariadne, comparing her to the beauties of the past whom they had seen in their youth and to the beauties in history books.
In fact, one of the grandmothers' favorite pastimes to pass the time was complimenting young, pretty girls whom they had the good fortune to like.
“Actually, in terms of image, she fit the role of a Princess perfectly. She's elegant, intelligent, and sophisticated.”
“Is that all? She is virtuous, of course. Who else has a young man who has sacrificed her private property to help the poor?”
“She's smart, too. The incident with the Apostle of Asereto, this faithful old man still can’t forget.”
Everyone praised Ariadne with the idea of becoming Queen in mind.
Being clever, virtuous, and dedicated to helping the poor was actually the job of the Queen, not the Crown Prince's wife.
Still, mentioning the Queen was taboo.
Now that Ariadne was officially dating Prince Alfonso, calling her a Queen was like saying that Prince Alfonso was a King.
It was a great blasphemy, as long as Leo III was still in power. But people thought the same thing.
“The woman from the Kingdom of Gallico that was mentioned before? She is said to be a direct descendant of the Grand Duke, but even considering that she is Gallico, she lacks dignity.”
“Honestly, I felt embarrassed to be the face of the Etruscan kingdom at an official event.”
"Foreigner... Ugh. How I wish the princess were a domestic."
After that, the conversation naturally moved on to the topic of the impact of foreign royalty marrying into the country, its pros and cons, and likes and dislikes about it.
The story of Queen Marguerite, who, despite coming from the backward kingdom of Gallico, was a very respectable person, began to blossom with stories of her being the mother of Leo III, who had come from the north to the Etruscan kingdom.
After roughly handling the situation, Cornelia went back to Ariadne's side and apologized with a really red face.
“I’m sorry... I don’t know who invited Baroness Loredan and her party. We shouldn’t have invited such uncivilized guests...”
"It's okay."
Ariadne answered blandly.
But, despite Ariadne's answer, Cornelia still looked uncomfortable, so she added a word.
“It’s human nature. There was nothing you could do about it.”
Ariadne truly thought so. In fact, in a way, it would have been gentlemanly enough to stop there.
Because they didn't openly look at it or try to touch it.
As soon as word got out in the low-life circles that Countess Ariadne de Mare was dating Prince Alfonso, the rumor began to spread in various forms.
They say rumors never get passed down exactly as they were, but this was a transformation in an unimaginable direction.
“I heard that Prince Alfonso and Countess de Mare are in love!”
“How did they meet?”
“When the Prince was at war, the Saint of the Rambouillet hospice flew through the sky and came to Yesak!”
'Ariadne', who was able to fly through the air, also displayed supernatural powers.
“It is said that when the saints gave him a blessing, the knights got up again after falling and fought bravely!”
This eventually spread to the point where, if the Holy See heard about it, they would try to arrest her.
“When the Saint touches, all diseases are cured, the lame stand up, and the blind see!”
“They say that even families that couldn’t have children are now having children and that the elderly are getting younger!”
“Even the dead stand up! Huh? You’re not a dead person, you’re a cripple?”
Ariadne, who had never imagined that the rumor would circulate in such a changed state, went into the city to check on the Scuola di Greta, where Raphael had left.
The weather was nice, so she went horseback riding instead of her usual.
It was a very wrong judgment. People came to her shouting, 'The Saint of the Rambouillet Relief Society has arrived!'
In an instant, more than a hundred people swarmed in like a swarm of ants, and Ariadne was almost left alone.
People of all ages ran to her and tried to grab her hand. It was a stroke of luck that she tied her hair up and went out.
If they had caught even a hair, they would have pulled it out and made it into a sacred object.
Luckily, the terrified Giuseppe and his escorts flew in and pulled her out before she was completely trapped.
Since we didn't know who it was, we couldn't hold anyone responsible, and we couldn't come up with any specific measures to prevent a recurrence.
It would have been best for her to simply avoid going to crowded places.
Ariadne sighed as she had experienced something like that on the street just a few days ago, and then came face to face with a hostile group at a friend's house she had not visited in a long time.
'I'm tired... I guess I should just stay home and not go out for a while.'
But she soon got the hang of it. There was a lot to do. The task at hand was a request from CEO Caruso.
She tried pulling a few strings to make CEO Caruso's wish come true, but the measures she had put in place long ago had all worn away, as if they had not been maintained properly.
'I never thought that a bailiff would be transferred to another place.'
Among Leo III's executors, there was one who was blinded by money. He was a man who would do anything for gold.
Ariadne planned to bribe him and have the lien imposed on the Count Contarini family.
Then, a big market would have been held in the front yard of the Contarini family, every valuable item in the house would have been emptied, and a new owner would have moved into the historic mansion.
It was obvious that once one house was robbed, the rest would follow.
In this case, the person who started first got beaten up, so the later entrants could jump in without any burden.
There is an opportunity to make a lot of money by buying things at a low price, but it would be a loss if you just left it behind.
Human greed cannot tolerate being left behind alone.
However, the bailiff in question was forced out of the department in charge of enforcement and transferred to a low-level position, perhaps because he had been caught habitually accepting bribes from multiple people.
Now sitting in that place was a confidant of Leo III, who was known for his rigidity.
Ariadne was convinced that anyone could move if they had the time, but it was impossible right now.
'The detective who had been in the public eye also passed away from old age.'
The old priest was a person who assisted in the execution of the religious tribunal in the Holy See.
To convert property seized by the Inquisition into money, either Leo III's bailiffs or the bailiffs of the Holy See could do the work.
However, Cardinal de Mare had prevented the King's men from getting started on the work, through the King and the Holy See's men from getting started on the work through his own order.
Ariadne had a few cards to play to mobilize the old priest, who had unexpectedly entered into a state of slackening under orders from his superiors.
It was thanks to the fact that she knew the person from her previous life, and that she knew all of their intimate family history.
However, he was sick in bed with old age and died without ever getting out of bed.
The lifeless corpse could not be moved by anything-not gold, not greed, not family.
'I had a rough idea that you would be back by now...'
Even if she had memories of her past life, it was inevitable for Ariadne that something would happen that would require the old priest's assistance after his death.
'It seems like today's recital was a waste of time...'
Today, she actually came out not just for Cornelia, but to find a connection that could connect her with the people she needed.
However, it seemed like the person she was aiming for did not attend.
'It's a waste, it's a waste...'
She had a chance to meet some of the following people today: Countess Ruba, Monsieur Paquito, and Master Edoardo.
It was enough to meet one of the three. They were all decent people of lower or upper-class nobility who had some ties to the Rinaldi family, so it was not unusual for them to meet at such recitals.
But as if she were unlucky, all three said they would not attend today.
But the entrance to the Rinaldi family was in disarray. The commotion of the guests could be felt even here.
'Is this the person I was looking for?'
She reread the note she had written just in case, so as not to make the mistake of mispronouncing someone's name.
The people she wanted to meet were ordinary people, so she didn't think their entrance would cause a commotion in the room, but she still didn't want to make a mistake.
As she lowered her head and tried to spell the name again, a familiar face appeared before her.
“Are you having a good time?”
It was a low, bass sound that was very familiar, but shouldn't be heard here. Ariadne raised her head and was startled.
“Alfonso!”
She changed her tone of voice, conscious of the gaze of others. It was common for gossip to spread in social circles.
“...No, Your Highness. Have you been well since the last time you left the station?”
She lowered her voice and whispered to Alfonso, who helped her up, making a hasty gesture.
“What are you doing here?”
The blond Prince smiled. It wasn't a whisper, but a loud voice that filled the recitation hall.
“I came to pick up my girlfriend.”
Support Novellate!
Comments
Post a Comment