Cardinal de Mare's dubious question of why he was asking such a thing was followed by Pope Ludovico's direct reply that he was asking because it was not an idea that came from his own head.
After a long argument about how the old man has grown old and has no more weapons, how he has become more reckless as he nears death, how he is even human to say such things to a sick person, Ludovico clicked his tongue when he finally realized whose plan this was.
“The most precious thing you have is your second daughter.”
Fe Mare rubbed his nose, feeling somewhat embarrassed.
“She is quite smart.”
“It’s not easy for someone like you to raise a child like that to grow up well. Take good care of her.”
Cardinal de Mare froze for a moment.
He had no idea how he could take care of his grown daughter, who had never been touched since she was little, and who now wouldn't even tell him that she was married to a Prince.
Pope Louis left the confused Cardinal alone for a moment until he came to his senses.
Cardinal de Mare quickly recovered from his rationalist predilection for not dwelling too long on the impossible and gave a detailed account of his proposal to pass the Allemand Law amnesty and the strengthening of documentary rule at the same time.
Pope Louis readily agreed to Cardinal de Mare's proposal.
The Cardinal thought that the Pope had been persuaded by the room itself, but the Pope's decision was more likely to have been due to the attitude of a predecessor taking his successor into consideration.
To be precise, the Pope thought, 'It's not my place to interfere since the aftermath will be de Mare's job anyway.' However, he really wanted to do the cherry picking.
“Have you seen this?”
The Pope took out from his bosom a piece of high-quality parchment that looked luxurious at first glance.
Cardinal de Mare shook his head. The Pope handed him the paper.
The paper in Cardinal de Mare's hand was an official diplomatic document.
While the Cardinal was reading intently the parchment he had received from Ludovico's hands, Ludovico asked him a favor.
“Make sure to tell that bastard Philip to give up the port of Pisarino.”
[ ...(Strategy)... If the Allemand Law of 1122 is passed, the Kingdom of Gallico will permanently donate the port of Pisarino to the Papal Legion of Trevero.
- Philip IV. ]
“Pfft!”
Cardinal de Mare could not hold back his laughter.
“King Gallico’s expression is... It must be worth seeing.”
“It doesn’t matter how we find out. If we keep our mouths shut, we’ll get stabbed. We danced after seeing the passage of the Allemand Law and the general amnesty, but when we actually go to Holy See with the promulgation of the royal decree, they’ll say, ‘You don’t have the documents, so you’re not eligible for amnesty,’ and we’ll be turned away!”
Cardinal de Mare went even further.
“At the local Holy See, they would say, ‘Would you like to report the birth now? Oh, the amnesty period is over, so now it is only possible for illegitimate children.”
“Haha, haha, hahahahahaha!”
Even Pope Ludovico couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out laughing. It was already funny, but when the person next to him started laughing too, Cardinal de Mare burst out laughing.
The Cardinal laughed for a long time, then expressed his humanity from the perspective of a practitioner.
“Don’t we need to increase security personnel at the Palais des Congrès in Montpellier?”
A man who had spent decades as a cost-conscious manager cut down this proposal without a second thought.
“The Archbishop of Montpellier will take care of it.”
“If that gentleman thinks about how he’ll act in front of an angry Philip... No, he won’t even be able to run away when he’s chasing him with a knife. Haha, haha!”
Cardinal de Mare burst out laughing again when he imagined the voluminous Archbishop of Montpellier fleeing before Philip IV.
The Etruscan and Gallico branches of the Holy See were traditionally not on good terms.
“Hahahahahahahaha!”
“Hehehehehehe!”
The two old men laughed for a long time like the world's greatest villains, holding the diplomatic document that Philip IV had signed with all sincerity, giving up his territory for the sake of his son.
In contrast to Alfonso's frequent visits to the Palazzo Carlo, Ariadne rarely visited the Palazzo Carlo.
While it was possible to sneak into the de Mare mansion by putting on a hood and letting the security guard know in advance, it was difficult to do so in Palazzo Carlo.
The palace gates were opened in the morning and locked in the early evening. To enter Palazzo Carlo, one had to sign in at the main gate.
It was difficult to avoid the eyes of the patrolmen and the numerous palace housekeeping staff trying to sneak through the side door.
It was impossible to fill the palace staff of over 500 people with only trustworthy people.
Even so, the personnel of the Prince's palace were rotated with those of the main palace. In many ways, there was no way to prevent the infiltration of people from the King's side.
So Ariadne only set foot in Palazzo Carlo when she received an official invitation.
It was truly unusual for Duchess Rubina, who was in charge of the palace's household, to be gnashing her teeth at Ariadne de Mare.
But today was one of those rare days.
“Come in, come in!”
Leo III walked out to the entrance of the banquet hall and personally welcomed Countess de Mare.
Ariadne tried to bow to him, but the King passionately tried to stop her.
“Put it in, put it in!”
Leo III led her to the dinner table with a friendly smile. During the intermission, the King spoke to the young lady in a friendly tone.
“Is everything okay at home? Is your father doing well?”
Today's Leo III is extremely courteous and friendly to Ariadne.
If you only look at the relationship between the two people, it was an odd thing to do, but if you think about the bigger picture, it was a natural thing to do.
Leo III's hospitality to Countess de Mare was in fact a feather dance of courtship towards Cardinal de Mare and, later, Pope Louis.
Ariadne answered with a dry smile.
“Your Majesty is always nice.”
The fact that there were no modifiers like 'Thanks to His Majesty the King's grace' here symbolically represented Ariadne's current position and attitude.
But Leo III did not give in to this gentle snub and continued to speak.
“Hehehe, hehehe. But he must be busy these days. He has a distinguished guest here.”
“I guess so.”
And that was the end of it. Leo III tried to change the conversation to Pope Louis and hear about his recent activities.
If by chance they talk too much and it turns out that the Pope is preparing for the next crusade or is exchanging letters with some foreign monarch, then it's a jackpot.
He wanted to get at least some information about what kind of alcohol he likes to drink.
But Countess de Mare's defenses were impenetrable.
She stared blankly at Leo III with her mouth tightly shut and a faint smile on her face. It was a distance that was just about rude.
There was no other way to take it over. The King had no choice but to escort the Countess de Mare to her seat without much success.
Still, Leo III did not forget his last lip movement.
“I took great care to place you opposite your father. The Countess must not have anyone you feel comfortable with in the palace, so I think you would get bored without someone to talk to.”
It was a subtle story. It was a well-known story that Duchess Rubina hated Countess de Mare.
A positive interpretation could be that the King personally informed the Countess of the banquet protocol, thereby signaling to her that he considered the Countess an important person and that he did not agree with his government's attitude.
But on the other hand, the incident in which Prince Alfonso, the heir of Leo III, declared his break-off from the Grand Duchess Lariesa by taking the hand of Countess de Mare in Trevero was widely known throughout the Central Continent.
Telling Ariadne that she had no one to talk to in the palace while her son was sitting there with his eyes open was the same as saying that he did not consider her a suitable daughter-in-law.
But Ariadne once again ended the conversation with an answer that expended minimal energy.
“Is that so?”
There was a faint smile on her lips, like a statue of the Virgin Mary. Leo III returned to his seat with both hands and feet raised.
This dinner was a very small banquet with only six people in attendance.
Originally, they had planned a banquet for eight people, expecting that the Pope would invite at least one of his associates from Trevero, but the Pope himself declined, saying, "One Cardinal de Mare would suffice."
Considering the diplomatic custom of displaying one's power through the number of people, it was a truly unconventional move.
This prompted the Marquis Baldessar, the chief of protocol at the Palazzo Carlo, and the Count Marquez, the diplomat, to hastily change the banquet to one for six.
The minimum number of people allowed to attend the banquet was the host, Leo III, the guest of honor, Pope Ludovico, Cardinal de Mare, Prince Alfonso, Ariadne de Mare, and Duke Cesare.
Originally, the position of Duke Cesare belonged to Duchess Rubina, but the Duchess gave up her position to her son.
As the banquet was reduced from eight to six people, Duke Cesare was inevitably left off the invitation list.
An odd number of seven is a diplomatic discourtesy, and if you take out Countess Ariadne de Mare and include Duke Cesare, the number of people on each side becomes 4 to 2, so this is also a diplomatic discourtesy.
But the Duchess could not accept this excuse.
“Excuses, excuses! Why on earth do you insist on that girl’s attendance?!”
If Rubina was ignorant, then she was ignorant, and if she was intuitive, then she was intuitive.
It was a diplomatic faux pas to bring in Cesare instead of Ariadne, but the truth was that bringing in one more member of the Holy See was a much more ordinary choice than bringing in the illegitimate Countess of a Cardinal.
But the King was a man who, when he bowed, bowed hotly.
He wanted to make sure that Cardinal de Mare and Pope Louis showed their respect for him. The way to do this was through an invitation from Countess de Mare.
If it had been detrimental to him, he would have certainly reconsidered, but if it had been a show of respect that could be shown by depriving his son, Cesare, of an opportunity rather than his own, there was no reason not to do so.
Duchess Rubina, who was not exactly a model mother but was far more devoted to her son than Leo III, gave up her position to her son under the pretext of illness.
It was natural for Rubina's anger to flare up at Ariadne as she went through a series of events.
“That woman has such pretty eyes, I can’t stand it!”
While the attendees were changing here and there, the person in charge of protocol put all his effort into arranging the seats.
As a protocol officer, it was a truly challenging scene. Good protocol means conducting an event without any inconvenience, without anyone blushing or feeling uncomfortable.
But no matter what he did, there was no way to make everything go smoothly at a dinner for six people—himself, his current lover, and his ex-fiancé, who were all present, little did the staff know that even Leo III had joined in the fray.
The best the staff could do was to place Countess de Mare and Duke Cesare diagonally at the ends of the table, keeping them at a distance.
At the center of a long square table sat Pope Louis XIV, opposite him sat Leo III.
On either side of Leo III were Cesare, Duke of Pisano, and Cardinal de Mare. To the right of Pope Ludovico sat the chair of Prince Alfonso, and to the left of that of Countess de Mare.
Alfonso winked at Ariadne, sitting across from the empty chair of Pope Ludovico.
Ariadne raised her eyebrows at Alfonso, indicating that he should not do so.
Duke Cesare, sitting opposite Alfonso, swirled his glass of water gloomily. It was a party of chaos.
If the time had been longer, the atmosphere would have been reminiscent of hell.
Fortunately, Pope Louis did not show off his power by being late, but showed up neatly and precisely on time.
“Oh my, whenever I come to San Carlo, I feel like I’m home.”
He entered with Cardinal de Mare at his side, and was guided by a servant to the chief table opposite Leo III.
Leo III's modest pride shone through, and the King personally escorted Countess Ariadne de Mare, but not Pope Louis.
While it might seem like a courtesy to show a young woman to her seat, it was because the King showed the Pope to his seat that he seemed like a subordinate.
The Pope sat down and blurted out a few words.
“I feel like I’ve come to a place where I belong, like a salmon swimming upstream to find a place to die. It’s so comfortable.”
Leo III, not even knowing what he meant, offered consolation by saying something along the lines of, "You are so honest, yet so sentimental."
Pope Louis and Leo III often talked about health in old age, the weather, and small talk.
Ariadne thought the Pope's mental strength was amazing as he accepted Leo III's impertinence without even a hint of disrespect after receiving a date for his death.
Meanwhile, Duke Cesare's eager eyes swept over the people sitting diagonally to his right.
In order, they were Pope Louis XIV and Ariadne de Mare.
After a long argument about how the old man has grown old and has no more weapons, how he has become more reckless as he nears death, how he is even human to say such things to a sick person, Ludovico clicked his tongue when he finally realized whose plan this was.
“The most precious thing you have is your second daughter.”
Fe Mare rubbed his nose, feeling somewhat embarrassed.
“She is quite smart.”
“It’s not easy for someone like you to raise a child like that to grow up well. Take good care of her.”
Cardinal de Mare froze for a moment.
He had no idea how he could take care of his grown daughter, who had never been touched since she was little, and who now wouldn't even tell him that she was married to a Prince.
Pope Louis left the confused Cardinal alone for a moment until he came to his senses.
Cardinal de Mare quickly recovered from his rationalist predilection for not dwelling too long on the impossible and gave a detailed account of his proposal to pass the Allemand Law amnesty and the strengthening of documentary rule at the same time.
Pope Louis readily agreed to Cardinal de Mare's proposal.
The Cardinal thought that the Pope had been persuaded by the room itself, but the Pope's decision was more likely to have been due to the attitude of a predecessor taking his successor into consideration.
To be precise, the Pope thought, 'It's not my place to interfere since the aftermath will be de Mare's job anyway.' However, he really wanted to do the cherry picking.
“Have you seen this?”
The Pope took out from his bosom a piece of high-quality parchment that looked luxurious at first glance.
Cardinal de Mare shook his head. The Pope handed him the paper.
The paper in Cardinal de Mare's hand was an official diplomatic document.
While the Cardinal was reading intently the parchment he had received from Ludovico's hands, Ludovico asked him a favor.
“Make sure to tell that bastard Philip to give up the port of Pisarino.”
[ ...(Strategy)... If the Allemand Law of 1122 is passed, the Kingdom of Gallico will permanently donate the port of Pisarino to the Papal Legion of Trevero.
- Philip IV. ]
“Pfft!”
Cardinal de Mare could not hold back his laughter.
“King Gallico’s expression is... It must be worth seeing.”
“It doesn’t matter how we find out. If we keep our mouths shut, we’ll get stabbed. We danced after seeing the passage of the Allemand Law and the general amnesty, but when we actually go to Holy See with the promulgation of the royal decree, they’ll say, ‘You don’t have the documents, so you’re not eligible for amnesty,’ and we’ll be turned away!”
Cardinal de Mare went even further.
“At the local Holy See, they would say, ‘Would you like to report the birth now? Oh, the amnesty period is over, so now it is only possible for illegitimate children.”
“Haha, haha, hahahahahaha!”
Even Pope Ludovico couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out laughing. It was already funny, but when the person next to him started laughing too, Cardinal de Mare burst out laughing.
The Cardinal laughed for a long time, then expressed his humanity from the perspective of a practitioner.
“Don’t we need to increase security personnel at the Palais des Congrès in Montpellier?”
A man who had spent decades as a cost-conscious manager cut down this proposal without a second thought.
“The Archbishop of Montpellier will take care of it.”
“If that gentleman thinks about how he’ll act in front of an angry Philip... No, he won’t even be able to run away when he’s chasing him with a knife. Haha, haha!”
Cardinal de Mare burst out laughing again when he imagined the voluminous Archbishop of Montpellier fleeing before Philip IV.
The Etruscan and Gallico branches of the Holy See were traditionally not on good terms.
“Hahahahahahahaha!”
“Hehehehehehe!”
The two old men laughed for a long time like the world's greatest villains, holding the diplomatic document that Philip IV had signed with all sincerity, giving up his territory for the sake of his son.
***
In contrast to Alfonso's frequent visits to the Palazzo Carlo, Ariadne rarely visited the Palazzo Carlo.
While it was possible to sneak into the de Mare mansion by putting on a hood and letting the security guard know in advance, it was difficult to do so in Palazzo Carlo.
The palace gates were opened in the morning and locked in the early evening. To enter Palazzo Carlo, one had to sign in at the main gate.
It was difficult to avoid the eyes of the patrolmen and the numerous palace housekeeping staff trying to sneak through the side door.
It was impossible to fill the palace staff of over 500 people with only trustworthy people.
Even so, the personnel of the Prince's palace were rotated with those of the main palace. In many ways, there was no way to prevent the infiltration of people from the King's side.
So Ariadne only set foot in Palazzo Carlo when she received an official invitation.
It was truly unusual for Duchess Rubina, who was in charge of the palace's household, to be gnashing her teeth at Ariadne de Mare.
But today was one of those rare days.
“Come in, come in!”
Leo III walked out to the entrance of the banquet hall and personally welcomed Countess de Mare.
Ariadne tried to bow to him, but the King passionately tried to stop her.
“Put it in, put it in!”
Leo III led her to the dinner table with a friendly smile. During the intermission, the King spoke to the young lady in a friendly tone.
“Is everything okay at home? Is your father doing well?”
Today's Leo III is extremely courteous and friendly to Ariadne.
If you only look at the relationship between the two people, it was an odd thing to do, but if you think about the bigger picture, it was a natural thing to do.
Leo III's hospitality to Countess de Mare was in fact a feather dance of courtship towards Cardinal de Mare and, later, Pope Louis.
Ariadne answered with a dry smile.
“Your Majesty is always nice.”
The fact that there were no modifiers like 'Thanks to His Majesty the King's grace' here symbolically represented Ariadne's current position and attitude.
But Leo III did not give in to this gentle snub and continued to speak.
“Hehehe, hehehe. But he must be busy these days. He has a distinguished guest here.”
“I guess so.”
And that was the end of it. Leo III tried to change the conversation to Pope Louis and hear about his recent activities.
If by chance they talk too much and it turns out that the Pope is preparing for the next crusade or is exchanging letters with some foreign monarch, then it's a jackpot.
He wanted to get at least some information about what kind of alcohol he likes to drink.
But Countess de Mare's defenses were impenetrable.
She stared blankly at Leo III with her mouth tightly shut and a faint smile on her face. It was a distance that was just about rude.
There was no other way to take it over. The King had no choice but to escort the Countess de Mare to her seat without much success.
Still, Leo III did not forget his last lip movement.
“I took great care to place you opposite your father. The Countess must not have anyone you feel comfortable with in the palace, so I think you would get bored without someone to talk to.”
It was a subtle story. It was a well-known story that Duchess Rubina hated Countess de Mare.
A positive interpretation could be that the King personally informed the Countess of the banquet protocol, thereby signaling to her that he considered the Countess an important person and that he did not agree with his government's attitude.
But on the other hand, the incident in which Prince Alfonso, the heir of Leo III, declared his break-off from the Grand Duchess Lariesa by taking the hand of Countess de Mare in Trevero was widely known throughout the Central Continent.
Telling Ariadne that she had no one to talk to in the palace while her son was sitting there with his eyes open was the same as saying that he did not consider her a suitable daughter-in-law.
But Ariadne once again ended the conversation with an answer that expended minimal energy.
“Is that so?”
There was a faint smile on her lips, like a statue of the Virgin Mary. Leo III returned to his seat with both hands and feet raised.
This dinner was a very small banquet with only six people in attendance.
Originally, they had planned a banquet for eight people, expecting that the Pope would invite at least one of his associates from Trevero, but the Pope himself declined, saying, "One Cardinal de Mare would suffice."
Considering the diplomatic custom of displaying one's power through the number of people, it was a truly unconventional move.
This prompted the Marquis Baldessar, the chief of protocol at the Palazzo Carlo, and the Count Marquez, the diplomat, to hastily change the banquet to one for six.
The minimum number of people allowed to attend the banquet was the host, Leo III, the guest of honor, Pope Ludovico, Cardinal de Mare, Prince Alfonso, Ariadne de Mare, and Duke Cesare.
Originally, the position of Duke Cesare belonged to Duchess Rubina, but the Duchess gave up her position to her son.
As the banquet was reduced from eight to six people, Duke Cesare was inevitably left off the invitation list.
An odd number of seven is a diplomatic discourtesy, and if you take out Countess Ariadne de Mare and include Duke Cesare, the number of people on each side becomes 4 to 2, so this is also a diplomatic discourtesy.
But the Duchess could not accept this excuse.
“Excuses, excuses! Why on earth do you insist on that girl’s attendance?!”
If Rubina was ignorant, then she was ignorant, and if she was intuitive, then she was intuitive.
It was a diplomatic faux pas to bring in Cesare instead of Ariadne, but the truth was that bringing in one more member of the Holy See was a much more ordinary choice than bringing in the illegitimate Countess of a Cardinal.
But the King was a man who, when he bowed, bowed hotly.
He wanted to make sure that Cardinal de Mare and Pope Louis showed their respect for him. The way to do this was through an invitation from Countess de Mare.
If it had been detrimental to him, he would have certainly reconsidered, but if it had been a show of respect that could be shown by depriving his son, Cesare, of an opportunity rather than his own, there was no reason not to do so.
Duchess Rubina, who was not exactly a model mother but was far more devoted to her son than Leo III, gave up her position to her son under the pretext of illness.
It was natural for Rubina's anger to flare up at Ariadne as she went through a series of events.
“That woman has such pretty eyes, I can’t stand it!”
While the attendees were changing here and there, the person in charge of protocol put all his effort into arranging the seats.
As a protocol officer, it was a truly challenging scene. Good protocol means conducting an event without any inconvenience, without anyone blushing or feeling uncomfortable.
But no matter what he did, there was no way to make everything go smoothly at a dinner for six people—himself, his current lover, and his ex-fiancé, who were all present, little did the staff know that even Leo III had joined in the fray.
The best the staff could do was to place Countess de Mare and Duke Cesare diagonally at the ends of the table, keeping them at a distance.
At the center of a long square table sat Pope Louis XIV, opposite him sat Leo III.
On either side of Leo III were Cesare, Duke of Pisano, and Cardinal de Mare. To the right of Pope Ludovico sat the chair of Prince Alfonso, and to the left of that of Countess de Mare.
Alfonso winked at Ariadne, sitting across from the empty chair of Pope Ludovico.
Ariadne raised her eyebrows at Alfonso, indicating that he should not do so.
Duke Cesare, sitting opposite Alfonso, swirled his glass of water gloomily. It was a party of chaos.
If the time had been longer, the atmosphere would have been reminiscent of hell.
Fortunately, Pope Louis did not show off his power by being late, but showed up neatly and precisely on time.
“Oh my, whenever I come to San Carlo, I feel like I’m home.”
He entered with Cardinal de Mare at his side, and was guided by a servant to the chief table opposite Leo III.
Leo III's modest pride shone through, and the King personally escorted Countess Ariadne de Mare, but not Pope Louis.
While it might seem like a courtesy to show a young woman to her seat, it was because the King showed the Pope to his seat that he seemed like a subordinate.
The Pope sat down and blurted out a few words.
“I feel like I’ve come to a place where I belong, like a salmon swimming upstream to find a place to die. It’s so comfortable.”
Leo III, not even knowing what he meant, offered consolation by saying something along the lines of, "You are so honest, yet so sentimental."
Pope Louis and Leo III often talked about health in old age, the weather, and small talk.
Ariadne thought the Pope's mental strength was amazing as he accepted Leo III's impertinence without even a hint of disrespect after receiving a date for his death.
Meanwhile, Duke Cesare's eager eyes swept over the people sitting diagonally to his right.
In order, they were Pope Louis XIV and Ariadne de Mare.
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