“Huh....”
The newly crowned Pope Justinian VIII was deeply troubled.
“She really died?”
Princess Lariesa has died. The voice of the old Emperor trembled when he heard the report.
She was the Grand Princess of the Kingdom of Gallic, which her predecessor, Pope Louis I, had usurped by force, and was a distant relative of the King. However, she died in the palace of the Pope. To make matters worse, she had been dead for a long time.
“Was there anything like a signature, a will, or a last-minute prayer from a priest or nun?”
There was nothing. There was no record of anything. His head was spinning.
Justinian VIII was in the awkward position of having to tell Philip IV of Gallico, 'Give me the port. Oh, by the way. Your relative in our care has died. But give me the port anyway.'
“I guess I should... contact you, right?”
Justinian VIII was the polar opposite of Louis I. He was said to be a total idiot when it came to daring schemes or lying to others.
Trevero did not resort to any of the tricks of delaying the news of the death of the Grand Duchess Gallico, or of attempting any of the villainous bargains or frauds common to the Holy See in the days of Ludovico—you hand over the port in exchange for my predecessor’s secretly murdering your relative, who had been brought in to find out your weakness—but, like a priest, he went straight to the Palais de Montpellier and announced the death of the Grand Duchess Lariessa and demanded the cession of the port of Pisarino.
Relations between the Kingdom of Gallico and Trevero were turned upside down.
Cardinal de Mare, who had no idea what kind of hell he had escaped by falling from the papacy, announced his retirement following the terms of his agreement with Justinian VIII.
“Due to health issues... I want to study theology in the embrace of nature in my old age...”
A voice that was noisy asked,
“Are you really going to study theology?”
Cardinal de Mare firmly affirmed.
“That’s bullshit.”
Raphael de Baldessar replied in a very sarcastic manner.
“Oh. If you wanted to study theology, I was going to ask you to come to our monastery.”
Raphael, who had said that, picked his ear. Cardinal de Mare glared at the stray swallow with his white eyes. Even the way he picked his ear was unpleasant. Why would he hate me even if I gave him something? Cardinal de Mare answered sullenly.
“Your monastery is too rural. I don’t go to the countryside.”
“You said you were in the embrace of nature!”
Cardinal de Mare scratched his head, ignoring Raphael. He had already lost his bearings when he put down his hat. But you know what? In Cardinal de Mare’s worldview, the Abbey of Aberruche was the most rural of the rural.
It was true that he had stayed in the capital. The next Cardinal would come to San Carlo, and the next Cardinal would never welcome his predecessor, who was wandering around the town. In the end, he groaned and made a weak sound.
“Ugh. Let me think about it.”
“Oh. And our monastery is not in the countryside.”
Raphael de Baldessar handed Cardinal de Mare a roll of parchment. The Cardinal opened the paper. It was the letter of appointment.
“I was originally the abbot of Aberruche and acting bishop of Calienda.”
Cardinal de Mare's eyes twitched as he read the letter of appointment.
“You became the bishop of the diocese of Chiriani. Ahem.”
Cardinal de Mare, or rather, Grandfather Simon de Mare, looked at the Bishop of the Diocese of Ciriani, His Excellency Raphael de Baldessar, with an expression of disbelief.
It's true that when they were talking about Justinian VIII and his successor, they talked about this guy. He's smart, from a good family, a good worker, and a quiet kid... No, there's a promising young man. But, you're giving this young kid the position of Bishop of Chiriani, which even he hasn't been able to do?!
“The Chiriani parish monastery is not too far from San Carlo, and it is not in the city, so there is no need to blush with the successor Cardinal.”
Something was clearly going well, but it was so annoying that this guy kept talking like he was so great.
“...You also meet Ari occasionally, right?”
Snap!
Cardinal de Mare tapped Raphael's muzzle with two fingers.
“Oh, why are you hitting me?”
“Don’t call her by her maiden name! She’s a married woman!”
It was a difficult search for a civic destination.
“Ah, the old man's retirement and hysteria!”
The newly crowned Pope Justinian VIII was deeply troubled.
“She really died?”
Princess Lariesa has died. The voice of the old Emperor trembled when he heard the report.
She was the Grand Princess of the Kingdom of Gallic, which her predecessor, Pope Louis I, had usurped by force, and was a distant relative of the King. However, she died in the palace of the Pope. To make matters worse, she had been dead for a long time.
“Was there anything like a signature, a will, or a last-minute prayer from a priest or nun?”
There was nothing. There was no record of anything. His head was spinning.
Justinian VIII was in the awkward position of having to tell Philip IV of Gallico, 'Give me the port. Oh, by the way. Your relative in our care has died. But give me the port anyway.'
“I guess I should... contact you, right?”
Justinian VIII was the polar opposite of Louis I. He was said to be a total idiot when it came to daring schemes or lying to others.
Trevero did not resort to any of the tricks of delaying the news of the death of the Grand Duchess Gallico, or of attempting any of the villainous bargains or frauds common to the Holy See in the days of Ludovico—you hand over the port in exchange for my predecessor’s secretly murdering your relative, who had been brought in to find out your weakness—but, like a priest, he went straight to the Palais de Montpellier and announced the death of the Grand Duchess Lariessa and demanded the cession of the port of Pisarino.
Relations between the Kingdom of Gallico and Trevero were turned upside down.
***
Cardinal de Mare, who had no idea what kind of hell he had escaped by falling from the papacy, announced his retirement following the terms of his agreement with Justinian VIII.
“Due to health issues... I want to study theology in the embrace of nature in my old age...”
A voice that was noisy asked,
“Are you really going to study theology?”
Cardinal de Mare firmly affirmed.
“That’s bullshit.”
Raphael de Baldessar replied in a very sarcastic manner.
“Oh. If you wanted to study theology, I was going to ask you to come to our monastery.”
Raphael, who had said that, picked his ear. Cardinal de Mare glared at the stray swallow with his white eyes. Even the way he picked his ear was unpleasant. Why would he hate me even if I gave him something? Cardinal de Mare answered sullenly.
“Your monastery is too rural. I don’t go to the countryside.”
“You said you were in the embrace of nature!”
Cardinal de Mare scratched his head, ignoring Raphael. He had already lost his bearings when he put down his hat. But you know what? In Cardinal de Mare’s worldview, the Abbey of Aberruche was the most rural of the rural.
It was true that he had stayed in the capital. The next Cardinal would come to San Carlo, and the next Cardinal would never welcome his predecessor, who was wandering around the town. In the end, he groaned and made a weak sound.
“Ugh. Let me think about it.”
“Oh. And our monastery is not in the countryside.”
Raphael de Baldessar handed Cardinal de Mare a roll of parchment. The Cardinal opened the paper. It was the letter of appointment.
“I was originally the abbot of Aberruche and acting bishop of Calienda.”
Cardinal de Mare's eyes twitched as he read the letter of appointment.
“You became the bishop of the diocese of Chiriani. Ahem.”
Cardinal de Mare, or rather, Grandfather Simon de Mare, looked at the Bishop of the Diocese of Ciriani, His Excellency Raphael de Baldessar, with an expression of disbelief.
It's true that when they were talking about Justinian VIII and his successor, they talked about this guy. He's smart, from a good family, a good worker, and a quiet kid... No, there's a promising young man. But, you're giving this young kid the position of Bishop of Chiriani, which even he hasn't been able to do?!
“The Chiriani parish monastery is not too far from San Carlo, and it is not in the city, so there is no need to blush with the successor Cardinal.”
Something was clearly going well, but it was so annoying that this guy kept talking like he was so great.
“...You also meet Ari occasionally, right?”
Snap!
Cardinal de Mare tapped Raphael's muzzle with two fingers.
“Oh, why are you hitting me?”
“Don’t call her by her maiden name! She’s a married woman!”
It was a difficult search for a civic destination.
“Ah, the old man's retirement and hysteria!”
“Don’t say the right thing! Don’t say the right thing!”
“You admit it?”
The two began to fight as if they were going to grab each other by the collar. Fortunately, the ugly situation of the old man and the young man fighting was stopped just before it happened. Ariadne appeared.
Knock knock.
“Is everything okay?”
Ariadne passed by and heard a commotion in the drawing room, so she checked the situation. The atmosphere was so ominous that it could be felt even in the hallway. However, Cardinal de Mare and Raphael simultaneously brightened their faces and answered.
“No work!”
“Very good!”
***
Ariadne and Alfonso could not agree on anything about moving into the palace. Ariadne insisted that the move be delayed a little longer.
“The Crown Prince has not been appointed yet.”
Prince Alfonso, despite being the sole heir to the throne, has been referred to as just a “Prince” up until now. Being crowned Crown Prince was supposed to announce to the world that he was the successor, but he had not received the approval of Leo III to make him the next King.
The deeper the history and tradition of a kingdom, the more the eldest son was appointed as Crown Prince when the Princes were young. In terms of history and tradition, the Etruscan kingdom was a country that was second to none in the central continent. In many ways, it was too late.
“Well, let’s say he doesn’t give me the title of Crown Prince. What else can my father do?”
Alfonso had already reached the state of enlightenment. When he was young, Leo III postponed the crowning of his son as Crown Prince to make Queen Marguerite docile. It was a grudge against his wife, who was more outstanding than him.
This worked very well. Alfonso still remembered with a bitter heart the time when his mother refused to have a second child to make her son the Crown Prince, and constantly kept Rubina, who was an illegitimate child but had the eldest son, in check, contrary to her personality, and looked upon her husband with great anxiety. His son’s response to this was to completely turn off his attention to it.
“If you’re not going to do it, then don’t do it.”
"Still."
Alfonso thought that as time passed, his father would be able to do nothing. He was right. However, in Ariadne’s view, the Crown Prince’s appointment was Alfonso’s natural right.
Even if you eventually inherit the throne, there is a huge difference between waiting for the succession as the Crown Prince with everyone's blessings and having to be alert and sensitive to the situation.
Ariadne was so ashamed and afraid that he would have to give up something he deserved because of her. She eventually persuaded him.
“That... there’s also the issue of where Raphael’s relative’s child will live. I don’t think it’ll be possible for me to enter the Prince’s palace right now for various reasons.”
She could not finally express her true feelings openly. Of course, Prince Louis's problem was one of the important reasons why she could not enter the palace. It was certainly risky to bring the young Prince Louis to the Palazzo Carlo, where Duchess Rubina, Leo III's people, and even the spies of the Gallico kingdom, as had been seen in the time of Queen Marguerite, were swarming.
“I guess I’ll have to move out of de Mare Mansion. It would be best if the Holy See sold de Mare Mansion to me.”
If it's a problem that can be solved with money, then just solve it with money.
“If that’s too difficult, you can just buy a new mansion. I looked around Bocca della Giano, but there aren’t any good properties there.”
Bocca della Giano was a wealthy area. Most of the great noble families that had been around for generations had their capital mansions here. In fact, it was a place where things didn't come up until someone went bankrupt. It was natural that there were no properties for sale.
“But if you look towards Commune Nuova, there might be land suitable for building a new mansion.”
Alfonso frowned. Unlike Bocca della Giano, Comunale Nuova was very close to the center of San Carlo, but it was a poor and Moorish area.
“I’m not happy about it because of safety issues.”
“You just need to build a high wall around the house and post a lot of guards.”
During this conversation, Ariadne was taking measurements behind a glass screen. Alfonso was staring at the glass screen.
Alfonso, who had been through several sieges, knew full well how fragile the walls were, so he was not at all pleased with his wife's idea. In Alfonso's mind, the walls of the mansion were as strong as the opaque glass.
Ariadne added, realizing that her husband did not like the Commune Nuova.
“What’s the use of riding a carriage anyway?”
While Ariadne raised both her arms, her maid quickly measured her mistress’s chest. Alfonso looked at Ariadne’s slender hands and arms, her hair, and the nape of her neck revealed through them, one after another, as she rose above the partition. She was so beautiful. For a moment, he completely forgot about the walls of the Commune Nuova.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
The maid held a measuring tape and placed her hands on Ariadne's body. The measurements were being taken today in order to send them to the Canali costume shop, where she had commissioned winter clothing.
When Camellia had a miscarriage because the noble ladies had shamed her, Ariadne broke off her business with the Collezione dress shop, which was affiliated with the nobles. No matter how talented they were in San Carlo, she could no longer go with such people.
The maid took quick measurements. She had worked with Ariadne for a long time. She knew very well that her master liked to do things accurately.
“The chest circumference below is 20 ditto.”
The servant quietly muttered the numbers to herself, trying to memorize them.
Ariadne shifted her arms, which she had raised high, amid the quiet muttering of her servant. It seemed to tickle her a little.
Blood rushed to the back of Alfonso's neck, knowing where his wife would tickle him.
“The upper chest circumference is 26 ditto.”
Through the stained glass of the screen, the overall outline of Ariadne was visible. The thin red gown she wore swayed like rose petals. Alfonso could no longer bear it. He stood up.
"Oh!"
The servant girl was startled when the Prince suddenly invaded the partition where the mistress was changing clothes.
Ariadne was wearing only a gown as thin as butterfly wings to take accurate measurements.
Alfonso gestured toward the door with his chin to the servant. The servant was so startled that he ran out of his mistress's bedroom.
Alfonso, left alone with her, embraced his wife in both arms. His firm chest pressed against her luscious skin. He whispered in Ariadne’s ear.
“The dimensions seem different from last time.”-
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