What Isabella pointed out was the broken nose that Bianca had hit. It hadn't healed properly. Ippolito crumpled his face, half in anger and half in shame.
“Don’t ask for more details.”
But when she listens to him, it's not Isabella.
“Brother! Where the hell have you been and what have you been doing?”
Ippolito didn't look too bad, except for his broken nose.
No, some of the glitter from when Lucrezia was alive had returned.
He was decked out in his own style, with a thick gold necklace, a pair of new pointed satin shoes, and other items, and although he had his own share of quirks, at least Ippolito himself seemed to be in a good mood.
Isabella asked, her eyes wide.
“Does it look okay?”
Ippolito threw a small sack to Isabella without saying anything.
Yeah!
Isabella opened the bag, doubting it. The small bag was filled with gold ducats. It looked to be worth about two or thirty ducats.
“Brother! What is all this!”
Ippolito put his hand on his forehead in a rather cool way.
“Use it sparingly.”
Isabella was about to beat up her older brother for sticking a mere 20 ducats in her nose, but held it in, thinking that there was someone who cared this much for her.
Ippolito also seemed to know that he was exposed to the danger of nagging. He turned around to leave. Isabella hurriedly grabbed her brother.
“No, brother! Where did you get this money? Did you go back home? I heard my father went to Trevero!”
As a beggar with no one to turn to, Isabella had to hold on to her brother. It was a pitiful situation where she had no one to trust but Ippolito, but still, family was family.
But Ippolito had no intention of providing Isabella with the level of help she wanted—in fact, he might not have been capable of doing so—nor of offering any more than bare-handed support.
“Don’t leave the child behind. Go home and hurry. What are you doing out at this hour, a married woman?”
Ippolito glanced at the Moorish knight.
“Don’t hang out with that kind of stuff.”
“Oh, brother!”
Fortunately, Agosto didn't seem to care about Ippolito at all.
“I’ll come again when I get the chance.”
Ippolito eventually left without answering any of Isabella's barrage of questions.
Isabella looked at her older brother's trembling back, chewing on her doubts.
'What on earth did you do to make a punk like you rich?'
Unlike when Alfonso and Ariadne arrived in Trevero, when the Grand Duke Odes and his party entered Trevero three days later, the atmosphere in the holy city was extremely ominous.
It was because of the execution of Cardinal Velasco.
To be exact, it was quiet. People didn't even talk much about Cardinal Velasco's work.
They simply kept their heads down, avoided meeting outsiders, and huddled together with familiar faces to avoid the storm.
“It seems to me that this is not the first time.”
Cardinal de Mare declared, and Ariadne fully agreed with her father's observation.
“These are people who are accustomed to execution.”
And they were the ones who had given up resistance. Ariadne had seen something similar, if not quite like this.
To be exact, she tried to create this kind of atmosphere and failed.
In her previous life, immediately after her successful coup, Cesare hung several of Alfonso's men on the walls of San Carlo to make it into a city like this.
And even though he had taken the city by force, he was almost driven out because of the fierce rebellion of San Carlo, because he had not been persistent enough.
“They were very persistent, always catching and killing anyone who resisted.”
At the time, Ariadne tried to dissuade Cesare from killing the Prince's people, saying that it was extremely dangerous for him, who had just taken power, to do so. However, she was almost kicked out of the house by Cesare, who was furious at the words "your position."
And when Cesare, who had hung the first two, hesitated to execute them for the third time because he was surprised by the resistance that was more intense than expected, he said that this time they had to be executed quickly and that they had to be killed in large numbers, and he was met with all kinds of ridicule, saying that he was a woman who did not even remember what she had said.
Eventually, Cesare failed to carry out the third execution in time, and San Carlo rose up and succeeded in taming the regent.
Cardinal de Mare made one more point about the subjugated golden city of Trevero.
“It’s not like they killed them in public.”
Ariadne agreed. It was unlikely that all those who opposed the Pope would have been tried.
He would have been taken away by the secret police without anyone knowing, or found dead in his bed at night.
“Seeing people being reluctant to meet strangers, I can see that my father was right.”
Ariadne added.
“I think it’s been like this recently?”
It didn't seem like it had been that long since they had been like this, since they still met each other well.
When the reign of terror continues, people become unable to trust those around them, not even their neighbors or their families. Cardinal de Mare confirmed Ariadne's suspicions.
“Well, it wasn’t like this last time I came to Trevero.”
While the couple was chatting away, there was a knock on the door.
“This is Manfredi.”
They had all been staying together at the Palazzo degli Sei since the welcome dinner on the first day.
Palagio degli Sei was the Pope's villa, located slightly outside the city center of Trevero. It was chosen because there was not enough space in the castle to accommodate the 350 knights Alfonso brought with him.
“Your Eminence, may I come in for a moment?”
“Come in.”
Sir Manfredi strolled in, dressed in relatively comfortable attire.
“Phew! It is good to be close. If the Countess and His Eminence the Cardinal were in the Pope’s residence, I should have ridden there.”
The Pope readily consented to sending Prince Alfonso to the outskirts, but he wanted to keep Cardinal de Mare and his daughter within the walls of Trevero.
If Alfonso had not protested so strongly, the Cardinal and Ariadne would have been held captive in the Pope's immediate vicinity.
Ariadne answered with a smile.
“It’s all thanks to Alfonso. He takes care of us, and we appreciate his consideration.”
“I’m sure he had dark intentions.”
Sir Manfredi was nitpicking, then glanced at the Cardinal. Cardinal de Mare had been surprisingly strict about Ariadne’s return time throughout this trip to Trevero.
Alfonso never saw Ariadne, even though he had her in the same building, except during official breakfasts.
Sir Manfredi, whose love line was now tangled to the max, was teasing Prince Alfonso whenever he had the chance, under the banner that other people's misfortune was his happiness.
But today, Sir Manfredi will be helping Prince Alfonso with his love life.
“My Lady, the Prince is looking for you for a moment.”
Sir Manfredi said that and then glanced at Cardinal Dlde Mare.
“It’s work, work.”
He was ruined, but he had to leave the rest of the honey behind, and he even had to come pick up his girlfriend and make excuses to her father. There was nothing more frustrating than that.
The Cardinal kept Ariadne by his side, but when the Prince's vassal spoke like this, the Cardinal had no excuse to continue to refuse.
Since the son-in-law and father-in-law had already had a conversation, it was difficult to tell him not to even see her face.
“Yes. Have a nice trip.”
He didn't give up and added one more word.
“Don’t be too late.”
Ariadne smiled and got up from her seat.
“Don't worry.”
Noticing her father's worry, she added astutely.
“It’s still broad daylight.”
But the biggest mistake parents make is thinking that the ceremony only takes place at night.
“Alfonso!”
Ariadne, who had never had a chance to be alone with Alfonso for over twenty days, jumped into his arms as soon as she saw his face.
Alfonso gladly accepted her and embraced her. The scent of myrrh and citrus wafted from her hair.
“Ari, why are you dressed so complicatedly?”
He was dressed in comfortable loungewear, while Ariadne was wearing formal outerwear that had to be pieced together.
The red silk was shining brightly and was very pretty. Ariadne glared at Alfonso.
“Are you saying that it’s hard to take off?”
“Oh, no. That’s not it...”
Alfonso trailed off in embarrassment. He meant to tell her to dress comfortably...
The second biggest mistake parents make is thinking that their children are good and other people's children are bad.
Cardinal de Mare's daughter, who had been carried around like a reliquary during her entire trip, was the first to shower Leo III's son with kisses, covering every nook and cranny: the corners of his mouth, his cheeks, and the nape of his neck.
“Ahh!”
Alfonso closed his eyes at the unexpected attack, but did not let go of the arms that held her tightly.
Ariadne held Alfonso in her arms and showered his eyelids and hair with kisses.
“You didn’t want to see me?”
“I really wanted to see you...”
The problem is that the women were playful, but the men were lewd.
Alfonso's voice, which had been receiving a baptism of kisses from Ariadne for a long time, began to groan.
Yes!
Ariadne finally managed to steal his lips. The arms holding her grew stronger.
He wanted to be closer. But at the same time, Alfonso pulled his lower body back.
“Wait a minute... Ari, wait a minute.”
He was sure that he would fall apart the moment they touched him. He whispered pleadingly to his lover, who was looking down at him with the dignity of a Queen while he was held high.
“Now is not the time.”
“Do you dislike me, Your Highness?”
Ariadne laughed brightly and teased Alfonso. As she pushed further, Alfonso fell down on the sofa in an awkward position.
She buried her lips in the nape of his neck, still burning over Alfonso.
“Ha...”
His loose tunic was roomy at the neck. Ariadne's fingers trailed down Alfonso's neckline to his chest.
His pectoral muscles were tense to an impossibly high degree of anger.
“I figured that would be the case since I shared the same carriage with my father while traveling... but once I got here, I could have easily called him over separately.”
It was a mischievous prank that even included formal speech. Every time her lips or fingers touched his body, Alfonso's whole body trembled slightly as if he had been shocked by an electric current.
Ariadne seemed to understand Delilah's feelings a little bit in the story of Samson and Delilah.
The strongest man on the continent was now dangling from her grasp.
If she ran her hand down his body, every nerve in his body would scream.
“How long are you going to put up with this, huh?”
In fact, Ariadne knew that Alfonso would not touch her today either.
It was also because she knew that she could provoke him without hesitation.
There's no way this old-fashioned man would take her when her father is watching him from the very same building.
And that too in a destination where nothing had been prepared. And that destination was Trevero, a holy place that was said to relieve pilgrims of their sins.
But contrary to Ariadne's belief, Alfonso was now being tested, standing on the thin line of whether to commit or not.
All his senses were at their peak, and it seemed as if the slightest touch would snap his reasoning and make him lose control.
In fact, contrary to her thoughts, this was the holy land of Trevero, and the fact that Ariadne's father was nearby was not a big limitation for Alfonso.
Rather, what bound him was the promise he made to himself and his respect for her, that taking Ariadne would be only after giving her the place by his side.
And there was just one more thing that could stop him at this very moment.
The fact was that a major milestone toward that day was just around the corner.
“Grand Duke Odes requested a meeting.”
At those words, Ariadne, who had been playfully touching him, stopped all movements.
“It’s tonight.”
Exactly six hours later, the fate of the marriage contract signed by Alfonso and the Princess of Lariesa is decided...
“Don’t ask for more details.”
But when she listens to him, it's not Isabella.
“Brother! Where the hell have you been and what have you been doing?”
Ippolito didn't look too bad, except for his broken nose.
No, some of the glitter from when Lucrezia was alive had returned.
He was decked out in his own style, with a thick gold necklace, a pair of new pointed satin shoes, and other items, and although he had his own share of quirks, at least Ippolito himself seemed to be in a good mood.
Isabella asked, her eyes wide.
“Does it look okay?”
Ippolito threw a small sack to Isabella without saying anything.
Yeah!
Isabella opened the bag, doubting it. The small bag was filled with gold ducats. It looked to be worth about two or thirty ducats.
“Brother! What is all this!”
Ippolito put his hand on his forehead in a rather cool way.
“Use it sparingly.”
Isabella was about to beat up her older brother for sticking a mere 20 ducats in her nose, but held it in, thinking that there was someone who cared this much for her.
Ippolito also seemed to know that he was exposed to the danger of nagging. He turned around to leave. Isabella hurriedly grabbed her brother.
“No, brother! Where did you get this money? Did you go back home? I heard my father went to Trevero!”
As a beggar with no one to turn to, Isabella had to hold on to her brother. It was a pitiful situation where she had no one to trust but Ippolito, but still, family was family.
But Ippolito had no intention of providing Isabella with the level of help she wanted—in fact, he might not have been capable of doing so—nor of offering any more than bare-handed support.
“Don’t leave the child behind. Go home and hurry. What are you doing out at this hour, a married woman?”
Ippolito glanced at the Moorish knight.
“Don’t hang out with that kind of stuff.”
“Oh, brother!”
Fortunately, Agosto didn't seem to care about Ippolito at all.
“I’ll come again when I get the chance.”
Ippolito eventually left without answering any of Isabella's barrage of questions.
Isabella looked at her older brother's trembling back, chewing on her doubts.
'What on earth did you do to make a punk like you rich?'
***
Unlike when Alfonso and Ariadne arrived in Trevero, when the Grand Duke Odes and his party entered Trevero three days later, the atmosphere in the holy city was extremely ominous.
It was because of the execution of Cardinal Velasco.
To be exact, it was quiet. People didn't even talk much about Cardinal Velasco's work.
They simply kept their heads down, avoided meeting outsiders, and huddled together with familiar faces to avoid the storm.
“It seems to me that this is not the first time.”
Cardinal de Mare declared, and Ariadne fully agreed with her father's observation.
“These are people who are accustomed to execution.”
And they were the ones who had given up resistance. Ariadne had seen something similar, if not quite like this.
To be exact, she tried to create this kind of atmosphere and failed.
In her previous life, immediately after her successful coup, Cesare hung several of Alfonso's men on the walls of San Carlo to make it into a city like this.
And even though he had taken the city by force, he was almost driven out because of the fierce rebellion of San Carlo, because he had not been persistent enough.
“They were very persistent, always catching and killing anyone who resisted.”
At the time, Ariadne tried to dissuade Cesare from killing the Prince's people, saying that it was extremely dangerous for him, who had just taken power, to do so. However, she was almost kicked out of the house by Cesare, who was furious at the words "your position."
And when Cesare, who had hung the first two, hesitated to execute them for the third time because he was surprised by the resistance that was more intense than expected, he said that this time they had to be executed quickly and that they had to be killed in large numbers, and he was met with all kinds of ridicule, saying that he was a woman who did not even remember what she had said.
Eventually, Cesare failed to carry out the third execution in time, and San Carlo rose up and succeeded in taming the regent.
Cardinal de Mare made one more point about the subjugated golden city of Trevero.
“It’s not like they killed them in public.”
Ariadne agreed. It was unlikely that all those who opposed the Pope would have been tried.
He would have been taken away by the secret police without anyone knowing, or found dead in his bed at night.
“Seeing people being reluctant to meet strangers, I can see that my father was right.”
Ariadne added.
“I think it’s been like this recently?”
It didn't seem like it had been that long since they had been like this, since they still met each other well.
When the reign of terror continues, people become unable to trust those around them, not even their neighbors or their families. Cardinal de Mare confirmed Ariadne's suspicions.
“Well, it wasn’t like this last time I came to Trevero.”
While the couple was chatting away, there was a knock on the door.
“This is Manfredi.”
They had all been staying together at the Palazzo degli Sei since the welcome dinner on the first day.
Palagio degli Sei was the Pope's villa, located slightly outside the city center of Trevero. It was chosen because there was not enough space in the castle to accommodate the 350 knights Alfonso brought with him.
“Your Eminence, may I come in for a moment?”
“Come in.”
Sir Manfredi strolled in, dressed in relatively comfortable attire.
“Phew! It is good to be close. If the Countess and His Eminence the Cardinal were in the Pope’s residence, I should have ridden there.”
The Pope readily consented to sending Prince Alfonso to the outskirts, but he wanted to keep Cardinal de Mare and his daughter within the walls of Trevero.
If Alfonso had not protested so strongly, the Cardinal and Ariadne would have been held captive in the Pope's immediate vicinity.
Ariadne answered with a smile.
“It’s all thanks to Alfonso. He takes care of us, and we appreciate his consideration.”
“I’m sure he had dark intentions.”
Sir Manfredi was nitpicking, then glanced at the Cardinal. Cardinal de Mare had been surprisingly strict about Ariadne’s return time throughout this trip to Trevero.
Alfonso never saw Ariadne, even though he had her in the same building, except during official breakfasts.
Sir Manfredi, whose love line was now tangled to the max, was teasing Prince Alfonso whenever he had the chance, under the banner that other people's misfortune was his happiness.
But today, Sir Manfredi will be helping Prince Alfonso with his love life.
“My Lady, the Prince is looking for you for a moment.”
Sir Manfredi said that and then glanced at Cardinal Dlde Mare.
“It’s work, work.”
He was ruined, but he had to leave the rest of the honey behind, and he even had to come pick up his girlfriend and make excuses to her father. There was nothing more frustrating than that.
The Cardinal kept Ariadne by his side, but when the Prince's vassal spoke like this, the Cardinal had no excuse to continue to refuse.
Since the son-in-law and father-in-law had already had a conversation, it was difficult to tell him not to even see her face.
“Yes. Have a nice trip.”
He didn't give up and added one more word.
“Don’t be too late.”
Ariadne smiled and got up from her seat.
“Don't worry.”
Noticing her father's worry, she added astutely.
“It’s still broad daylight.”
***
But the biggest mistake parents make is thinking that the ceremony only takes place at night.
“Alfonso!”
Ariadne, who had never had a chance to be alone with Alfonso for over twenty days, jumped into his arms as soon as she saw his face.
Alfonso gladly accepted her and embraced her. The scent of myrrh and citrus wafted from her hair.
“Ari, why are you dressed so complicatedly?”
He was dressed in comfortable loungewear, while Ariadne was wearing formal outerwear that had to be pieced together.
The red silk was shining brightly and was very pretty. Ariadne glared at Alfonso.
“Are you saying that it’s hard to take off?”
“Oh, no. That’s not it...”
Alfonso trailed off in embarrassment. He meant to tell her to dress comfortably...
The second biggest mistake parents make is thinking that their children are good and other people's children are bad.
Cardinal de Mare's daughter, who had been carried around like a reliquary during her entire trip, was the first to shower Leo III's son with kisses, covering every nook and cranny: the corners of his mouth, his cheeks, and the nape of his neck.
“Ahh!”
Alfonso closed his eyes at the unexpected attack, but did not let go of the arms that held her tightly.
Ariadne held Alfonso in her arms and showered his eyelids and hair with kisses.
“You didn’t want to see me?”
“I really wanted to see you...”
The problem is that the women were playful, but the men were lewd.
Alfonso's voice, which had been receiving a baptism of kisses from Ariadne for a long time, began to groan.
Yes!
Ariadne finally managed to steal his lips. The arms holding her grew stronger.
He wanted to be closer. But at the same time, Alfonso pulled his lower body back.
“Wait a minute... Ari, wait a minute.”
He was sure that he would fall apart the moment they touched him. He whispered pleadingly to his lover, who was looking down at him with the dignity of a Queen while he was held high.
“Now is not the time.”
“Do you dislike me, Your Highness?”
Ariadne laughed brightly and teased Alfonso. As she pushed further, Alfonso fell down on the sofa in an awkward position.
She buried her lips in the nape of his neck, still burning over Alfonso.
“Ha...”
His loose tunic was roomy at the neck. Ariadne's fingers trailed down Alfonso's neckline to his chest.
His pectoral muscles were tense to an impossibly high degree of anger.
“I figured that would be the case since I shared the same carriage with my father while traveling... but once I got here, I could have easily called him over separately.”
It was a mischievous prank that even included formal speech. Every time her lips or fingers touched his body, Alfonso's whole body trembled slightly as if he had been shocked by an electric current.
Ariadne seemed to understand Delilah's feelings a little bit in the story of Samson and Delilah.
The strongest man on the continent was now dangling from her grasp.
If she ran her hand down his body, every nerve in his body would scream.
“How long are you going to put up with this, huh?”
In fact, Ariadne knew that Alfonso would not touch her today either.
It was also because she knew that she could provoke him without hesitation.
There's no way this old-fashioned man would take her when her father is watching him from the very same building.
And that too in a destination where nothing had been prepared. And that destination was Trevero, a holy place that was said to relieve pilgrims of their sins.
But contrary to Ariadne's belief, Alfonso was now being tested, standing on the thin line of whether to commit or not.
All his senses were at their peak, and it seemed as if the slightest touch would snap his reasoning and make him lose control.
In fact, contrary to her thoughts, this was the holy land of Trevero, and the fact that Ariadne's father was nearby was not a big limitation for Alfonso.
Rather, what bound him was the promise he made to himself and his respect for her, that taking Ariadne would be only after giving her the place by his side.
And there was just one more thing that could stop him at this very moment.
The fact was that a major milestone toward that day was just around the corner.
“Grand Duke Odes requested a meeting.”
At those words, Ariadne, who had been playfully touching him, stopped all movements.
“It’s tonight.”
Exactly six hours later, the fate of the marriage contract signed by Alfonso and the Princess of Lariesa is decided...
Support Novellate!
Comments
Post a Comment