Raphael de Baldessar smiled and took a step forward.
“Before that expression of intent became a compulsion, did you ever think that it was an expression of intent without any real intent?”
“What... What is insignificance?”
“The expression of intent by insignificance is literally, ‘I will marry you,’ but he signed it with no intention of getting married. In a contract of marriage, the expression of intent by insignificance is invalid.”
For Princess Lariesa, who did not understand what this meant, Raphael kindly explained it to her.
“When someone takes something you said as a joke without any intention of listening seriously, it is called a ‘non-serious expression of intent.’
Normally, in cases like this, the person who spoke is responsible, so the other person does as they are told, but in cases like marriage, isn't that simply impossible?
"Therefore, the expression of intention in the act of marriage is invalid. I can’t divorce and marry the neighborhood kid who comes to visit me twenty years later after believing in my promise to marry her.”
Cardinal de Mare had been guessing what the young fox was going to say since the story of the declaration of intention by insignificance came up, but Pope Louis, who had been out of the business for so long and had forgotten all about trivial things, finally let out a short exclamation of 'Ah!'
Lariesa was still confused, unable to grasp the situation. The kind Raphael did her a favor by summarizing it in one line.
“That marriage certificate is just a useless piece of paper.”
At those words, Princess Lariesa froze like a statue and glared at Raphael like a gargoyle. She muttered to herself like a madwoman.
“You lied when you said you had no intention of marrying me? You said I was on the same level as the neighborhood kid?”
Raphael, however, did not allow the Princess of Lariesa the luxury of talking to him. He answered her point by point.
“Yes. To calm you down when you’re excited. To somehow escape across the border.”
Raphael spoke bluntly, as if he were simply saying that tomorrow would be sunny and that it would be cold in winter, and he hammered home the truth that no one around Princess Lariesa had dared to utter.
“You knew, honestly. Prince Alfonso had a lover, and he didn’t see you as a woman at all. That a relationship between a man and a woman could never work out.”
"No!!!"
This was Lariesa's sore spot. It was something that could never be true in Lariesa's world, regardless of reality.
“No!!!”
Lariesa rushed towards Raphael in a panic. This time, Raphael was a little flustered.
Baldessar was famous for his quick swordsmanship, but the current Lariesa displayed strength beyond that of a human.
The end of Raphael's robe was caught in the grasp of Lariesa, who was flailing her hands and feet, and as Lariesa tried to tear Raphael apart with great force, two guards from the North Sea Union rushed in and barely managed to pull him away.
“Prince Alfonso loves me! He loves me!”
Even while held captive by the guards, she continued to curse and swear in a dialect.
“If you didn’t love me, why did you send me letters whispering your love to me! If you didn’t love me, why did you confess your daily routine and say you miss me every day? Always during the Yesak War! Every single day! You told me you missed me!”
Everyone was quite surprised by this shout. This was a factor that could change the situation.
The crowd's excitement excited Lariesa, who shouted twice as loudly and three times as loudly.
“You said you loved me! You said you missed the daffodil garden we saw together, and that we should go back to that garden when we get back home!”
She could even recite Prince Alfonso's letters by heart.
“He says he overcomes the fear of the battlefield every day by thinking of me! He treasures the silverware he captured in Yondogar and keeps it for me!!! He says he’s just waiting for the day we meet again and get married!!!”
Pope Ludovico turned to Prince Alfonso with a serious expression.
“Is it true? That you continued to send love letters to the Grand Duchess of Lariesa even after you escaped from Gallico?”
If this is true, then this is not a matter of a declaration of intent, but rather a legally established marriage, or, as Grand Duke Odes claims, something closer to a fraudulent marriage.
Alfonso was equally surprised. He met one person's eyes with wide eyes and answered seriously.
“That has never happened.”
But that one person was neither the Grand Duchess of Lariesa nor Pope Ludovico, but Ariadne.
Pope Louis asked Alfonso again, who was not looking at him.
“Is that true?”
Only then did Prince Alfonso turn around and bow his head to Pope Louis.
“Who would dare to lie and say that I am safe?”
Prince Alfonso's voice was replaced by Lariesa's shrieking scream.
“Stop lying! Evidence! I have evidence! There’s a letter here where you confessed your love to me!”
Even though she was held tightly by the North Sea Union guards, she put her hand into the bag she was hugging and scattered it into the air.
Forty, fifty, close to a hundred sheets of paper flew into the sky.
People standing under the cloud of parchment that filled the ceiling began to pick up a page or two and read them.
"When I stand guard on the battlefield, all sorts of thoughts come to mind. I miss your sleeping face. Your black hair, your warm scent..."
"Yesterday, after the victory, I had a sumptuous dinner with His Majesty the Commander-in-Chief. I thought of you while eating. You're not still starving to lose weight, are you?"
Now, Princess Lariesa had dyed her hair jet black.
It was a color that made her pale, white skin look even more tired, but it was the color that Lariesa wanted most right now.
Alfonso wanted to see 'the girl with the black hair'. After reading that letter, Larissa stopped crying. That woman had become so pretty.
“Anyone can tell it’s a love letter! Was what Princess Lariesa said right?!”
“My goodness, Prince Alfonso. You sent her such a sweet letter, and you have no intention of marrying her? How foolish of a woman to be mistaken!”
“It must have been intentional. They would have needed Gallico’s help to survive in Yesak. Isn’t that a marriage proposal?”
But some noticed something strange.
“It’s an Etruscan letter. You’re writing to Princess Gallico in Etruscan? Or in Latin?”
“That’s right. If you’re not going to use Latin, Prince Alfonso must be fluent in Gallic since his mother is Princess Gallico. Why on earth is the letter written in Etruscan?”
Meanwhile, there was a man who, by fate, received back the letter he was supposed to receive.
Sir Manfredi noticed a familiar handwriting among the fluttering parchments.
"Sir Manfredi, I miss you so much.
My parents were upset because you hadn't sent me a single letter in two years. They said that their son-in-law didn't even show sincerity.
They suggested that we break off the engagement on the grounds of death, because he didn't want to send you to that kind of guy....
I know I should count myself lucky to have parents who care about me.
Other friends say that they should get married before they become trash, and that they are afraid of the monastery.
Oh, it's true. This is what my sister's friend, Miss Felicite, actually heard from the Countess and Lady Elba last week.
She came to my house yesterday and cried for three hours. But was it only Miss Felicite?
On the contrary, I ended up talking back to my parents because I was so used to it. I really don't like it... (omitted)..."
The rest of the letter was about interesting things happening at Fort San Carlo and other news.
Miss Bedelia wrote letters to Lord Manfredi regularly, half to convey vivid stories of the battlefield to her fiancé, and half to fill and organize her own idle days.
The problem is that other listeners also enjoyed Miss Bedelia's vivid account of the scene.
In 'The Mulattoes of San Carlo', there were many stories about Miss Ariadne de Mare, and each part was densely filled with Gallican handwriting and underlined in red ink.
Red circles were repeatedly struck on the embroidered fabric, and Gallican writing was illegible to him.
Sir Manfredi trembled as he held Miss Bedelia's letter tightly in his hand.
All this time, Miss Bedelia's letters to Lord Manfredi were being treated like the 'San Carlo Correspondence' and were becoming the object of someone's voyeurism!
After all, the letters he sent must have been in the same situation.
Sir Manfredi began to desperately search the scraps of parchment on the floor, scurrying through the crowd, looking for more letters that Bedelia had sent, and that he had sent.
And there was another who found even more conclusive evidence than Sir Manfredi that the Princess of Lariesa had searched and stolen all the letters of the Prince, or rather of the Etruscans who had gone on a campaign against Yesak.
The first discoverer didn't dare to shout out loud after finding that part.
Because it was a distant memory to think about the repercussions of being the first one to raise his voice.
But it wasn't something he could keep to himself. He tapped the person next to him and showed him 'that part' of the letter.
The person next to him also immediately covered his mouth and handed the letter to the person next to him.
A letter with 'that part' written on it circulated through the crowd, creating a quiet vortex at that location.
Among those who had not seen 'that part', those who had a connection with the Grand Duke Odes or felt sympathy for the appearance of the Grand Duchess of Lariesa criticized Prince Alfonso.
“Prince Alfonso, did you actively deceive poor Princess Lariesa to ensure your own survival in the Kingdom of Gallico?”
“And yet, do you have the nerve to say you don’t want to get married?”
“As a man, I have to take responsibility!”
As the voice grew louder, one person in the vortex shouted loudly, as if he could no longer keep his eyes open.
“Everyone! Look at this!”
He held out the parchment he was holding in his hand.
“Look at the red part!”
The text of the letter the man handed him was written in blue ink. The 'red parts' were small corrections that stood out.
"Caro amore mio LAri." (To my beloved LAri)
A commotion spread among those who saw the letter. Those who could not read the letters with their own eyes because of the distance leaned forward and looked ahead or asked those around them.
“What’s going on? What’s in that letter?”
The first person to pick up the letter explained in a loud voice.
“This is not a letter from Prince Alfonso to Princess Lariesa!”
And then someone spiteful put into words the words that the man could not bring himself to say out of pity.
“That crazy woman stole a letter that Prince Alfonso sent to his girlfriend and added her name to it!”
For a moment, the air in the room became cold. What everyone had thought was impossible turned out to be a clear fact.
"No!!!"
Princess Lariesa's piercing screams filled the room.
“No!!! No!!! Prince Alfonso loves me!!!”
Lariesa shouted just as she had before, no, even more ferociously, but the Grand Duchess’s voice now lacked the ‘power’ it had before.
The power of a human voice is determined not by its absolute volume, but by the strength of those who listen to it. Now, Princess Lariesa's voice has lost its strength.
“I will come to a conclusion.”
The pleasant and resonant voice of Pope Louis rang out. The assembled crowd looked at the Pope.
“The marriage contract between Princess Lariesa and Prince Alfonso is null and void as it is a sign of infidelity.”
“Aaah!!!!”
Lariesa went berserk once again, but this time the guards from the Northern Sea Union immediately pinned her down.
She was strangled by the man's forearm from behind, her breathing cut off by a gasp as she stopped screaming.
“Then...”
A cold, damp voice demanded attention. It was Philip IV.
“Isn’t it okay with you taking my relatives back to Gallico?”
He watched the show patiently until the end.
Originally, he was not in the mood to watch such an unrestrained commotion in front of him, but half because he was tired and half because the commotion was truly great, Philip was able to maintain his position as an audience member until the very end.
Now that the show was over, it was time to get to work. But today Philip really didn't get to take the lead role until the end.
“Dear young King. Just a moment.”
“Before that expression of intent became a compulsion, did you ever think that it was an expression of intent without any real intent?”
“What... What is insignificance?”
“The expression of intent by insignificance is literally, ‘I will marry you,’ but he signed it with no intention of getting married. In a contract of marriage, the expression of intent by insignificance is invalid.”
For Princess Lariesa, who did not understand what this meant, Raphael kindly explained it to her.
“When someone takes something you said as a joke without any intention of listening seriously, it is called a ‘non-serious expression of intent.’
Normally, in cases like this, the person who spoke is responsible, so the other person does as they are told, but in cases like marriage, isn't that simply impossible?
"Therefore, the expression of intention in the act of marriage is invalid. I can’t divorce and marry the neighborhood kid who comes to visit me twenty years later after believing in my promise to marry her.”
Cardinal de Mare had been guessing what the young fox was going to say since the story of the declaration of intention by insignificance came up, but Pope Louis, who had been out of the business for so long and had forgotten all about trivial things, finally let out a short exclamation of 'Ah!'
Lariesa was still confused, unable to grasp the situation. The kind Raphael did her a favor by summarizing it in one line.
“That marriage certificate is just a useless piece of paper.”
At those words, Princess Lariesa froze like a statue and glared at Raphael like a gargoyle. She muttered to herself like a madwoman.
“You lied when you said you had no intention of marrying me? You said I was on the same level as the neighborhood kid?”
Raphael, however, did not allow the Princess of Lariesa the luxury of talking to him. He answered her point by point.
“Yes. To calm you down when you’re excited. To somehow escape across the border.”
Raphael spoke bluntly, as if he were simply saying that tomorrow would be sunny and that it would be cold in winter, and he hammered home the truth that no one around Princess Lariesa had dared to utter.
“You knew, honestly. Prince Alfonso had a lover, and he didn’t see you as a woman at all. That a relationship between a man and a woman could never work out.”
"No!!!"
This was Lariesa's sore spot. It was something that could never be true in Lariesa's world, regardless of reality.
“No!!!”
Lariesa rushed towards Raphael in a panic. This time, Raphael was a little flustered.
Baldessar was famous for his quick swordsmanship, but the current Lariesa displayed strength beyond that of a human.
The end of Raphael's robe was caught in the grasp of Lariesa, who was flailing her hands and feet, and as Lariesa tried to tear Raphael apart with great force, two guards from the North Sea Union rushed in and barely managed to pull him away.
“Prince Alfonso loves me! He loves me!”
Even while held captive by the guards, she continued to curse and swear in a dialect.
“If you didn’t love me, why did you send me letters whispering your love to me! If you didn’t love me, why did you confess your daily routine and say you miss me every day? Always during the Yesak War! Every single day! You told me you missed me!”
Everyone was quite surprised by this shout. This was a factor that could change the situation.
The crowd's excitement excited Lariesa, who shouted twice as loudly and three times as loudly.
“You said you loved me! You said you missed the daffodil garden we saw together, and that we should go back to that garden when we get back home!”
She could even recite Prince Alfonso's letters by heart.
“He says he overcomes the fear of the battlefield every day by thinking of me! He treasures the silverware he captured in Yondogar and keeps it for me!!! He says he’s just waiting for the day we meet again and get married!!!”
Pope Ludovico turned to Prince Alfonso with a serious expression.
“Is it true? That you continued to send love letters to the Grand Duchess of Lariesa even after you escaped from Gallico?”
If this is true, then this is not a matter of a declaration of intent, but rather a legally established marriage, or, as Grand Duke Odes claims, something closer to a fraudulent marriage.
Alfonso was equally surprised. He met one person's eyes with wide eyes and answered seriously.
“That has never happened.”
But that one person was neither the Grand Duchess of Lariesa nor Pope Ludovico, but Ariadne.
Pope Louis asked Alfonso again, who was not looking at him.
“Is that true?”
Only then did Prince Alfonso turn around and bow his head to Pope Louis.
“Who would dare to lie and say that I am safe?”
Prince Alfonso's voice was replaced by Lariesa's shrieking scream.
“Stop lying! Evidence! I have evidence! There’s a letter here where you confessed your love to me!”
Even though she was held tightly by the North Sea Union guards, she put her hand into the bag she was hugging and scattered it into the air.
Forty, fifty, close to a hundred sheets of paper flew into the sky.
People standing under the cloud of parchment that filled the ceiling began to pick up a page or two and read them.
"When I stand guard on the battlefield, all sorts of thoughts come to mind. I miss your sleeping face. Your black hair, your warm scent..."
"Yesterday, after the victory, I had a sumptuous dinner with His Majesty the Commander-in-Chief. I thought of you while eating. You're not still starving to lose weight, are you?"
Now, Princess Lariesa had dyed her hair jet black.
It was a color that made her pale, white skin look even more tired, but it was the color that Lariesa wanted most right now.
Alfonso wanted to see 'the girl with the black hair'. After reading that letter, Larissa stopped crying. That woman had become so pretty.
“Anyone can tell it’s a love letter! Was what Princess Lariesa said right?!”
“My goodness, Prince Alfonso. You sent her such a sweet letter, and you have no intention of marrying her? How foolish of a woman to be mistaken!”
“It must have been intentional. They would have needed Gallico’s help to survive in Yesak. Isn’t that a marriage proposal?”
But some noticed something strange.
“It’s an Etruscan letter. You’re writing to Princess Gallico in Etruscan? Or in Latin?”
“That’s right. If you’re not going to use Latin, Prince Alfonso must be fluent in Gallic since his mother is Princess Gallico. Why on earth is the letter written in Etruscan?”
Meanwhile, there was a man who, by fate, received back the letter he was supposed to receive.
Sir Manfredi noticed a familiar handwriting among the fluttering parchments.
"Sir Manfredi, I miss you so much.
My parents were upset because you hadn't sent me a single letter in two years. They said that their son-in-law didn't even show sincerity.
They suggested that we break off the engagement on the grounds of death, because he didn't want to send you to that kind of guy....
I know I should count myself lucky to have parents who care about me.
Other friends say that they should get married before they become trash, and that they are afraid of the monastery.
Oh, it's true. This is what my sister's friend, Miss Felicite, actually heard from the Countess and Lady Elba last week.
She came to my house yesterday and cried for three hours. But was it only Miss Felicite?
On the contrary, I ended up talking back to my parents because I was so used to it. I really don't like it... (omitted)..."
The rest of the letter was about interesting things happening at Fort San Carlo and other news.
Miss Bedelia wrote letters to Lord Manfredi regularly, half to convey vivid stories of the battlefield to her fiancé, and half to fill and organize her own idle days.
The problem is that other listeners also enjoyed Miss Bedelia's vivid account of the scene.
In 'The Mulattoes of San Carlo', there were many stories about Miss Ariadne de Mare, and each part was densely filled with Gallican handwriting and underlined in red ink.
"...Miss Ariadne showed up at the ball wearing a new embroidered fabric, and everyone was desperate to find out where it came from. Sister Cornelia knew where it was from, but... (omitted)..."
Red circles were repeatedly struck on the embroidered fabric, and Gallican writing was illegible to him.
Sir Manfredi trembled as he held Miss Bedelia's letter tightly in his hand.
All this time, Miss Bedelia's letters to Lord Manfredi were being treated like the 'San Carlo Correspondence' and were becoming the object of someone's voyeurism!
After all, the letters he sent must have been in the same situation.
Sir Manfredi began to desperately search the scraps of parchment on the floor, scurrying through the crowd, looking for more letters that Bedelia had sent, and that he had sent.
And there was another who found even more conclusive evidence than Sir Manfredi that the Princess of Lariesa had searched and stolen all the letters of the Prince, or rather of the Etruscans who had gone on a campaign against Yesak.
The first discoverer didn't dare to shout out loud after finding that part.
Because it was a distant memory to think about the repercussions of being the first one to raise his voice.
But it wasn't something he could keep to himself. He tapped the person next to him and showed him 'that part' of the letter.
The person next to him also immediately covered his mouth and handed the letter to the person next to him.
A letter with 'that part' written on it circulated through the crowd, creating a quiet vortex at that location.
Among those who had not seen 'that part', those who had a connection with the Grand Duke Odes or felt sympathy for the appearance of the Grand Duchess of Lariesa criticized Prince Alfonso.
“Prince Alfonso, did you actively deceive poor Princess Lariesa to ensure your own survival in the Kingdom of Gallico?”
“And yet, do you have the nerve to say you don’t want to get married?”
“As a man, I have to take responsibility!”
As the voice grew louder, one person in the vortex shouted loudly, as if he could no longer keep his eyes open.
“Everyone! Look at this!”
He held out the parchment he was holding in his hand.
“Look at the red part!”
The text of the letter the man handed him was written in blue ink. The 'red parts' were small corrections that stood out.
"Caro amore mio LAri." (To my beloved LAri)
A commotion spread among those who saw the letter. Those who could not read the letters with their own eyes because of the distance leaned forward and looked ahead or asked those around them.
“What’s going on? What’s in that letter?”
The first person to pick up the letter explained in a loud voice.
“This is not a letter from Prince Alfonso to Princess Lariesa!”
And then someone spiteful put into words the words that the man could not bring himself to say out of pity.
“That crazy woman stole a letter that Prince Alfonso sent to his girlfriend and added her name to it!”
For a moment, the air in the room became cold. What everyone had thought was impossible turned out to be a clear fact.
"No!!!"
Princess Lariesa's piercing screams filled the room.
“No!!! No!!! Prince Alfonso loves me!!!”
Lariesa shouted just as she had before, no, even more ferociously, but the Grand Duchess’s voice now lacked the ‘power’ it had before.
The power of a human voice is determined not by its absolute volume, but by the strength of those who listen to it. Now, Princess Lariesa's voice has lost its strength.
“I will come to a conclusion.”
The pleasant and resonant voice of Pope Louis rang out. The assembled crowd looked at the Pope.
“The marriage contract between Princess Lariesa and Prince Alfonso is null and void as it is a sign of infidelity.”
“Aaah!!!!”
Lariesa went berserk once again, but this time the guards from the Northern Sea Union immediately pinned her down.
She was strangled by the man's forearm from behind, her breathing cut off by a gasp as she stopped screaming.
“Then...”
A cold, damp voice demanded attention. It was Philip IV.
“Isn’t it okay with you taking my relatives back to Gallico?”
He watched the show patiently until the end.
Originally, he was not in the mood to watch such an unrestrained commotion in front of him, but half because he was tired and half because the commotion was truly great, Philip was able to maintain his position as an audience member until the very end.
Now that the show was over, it was time to get to work. But today Philip really didn't get to take the lead role until the end.
“Dear young King. Just a moment.”
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