Leo III's eyes became as big as bells.
"What?"
The King could not believe his ears.
“There wasn’t a misunderstanding?”
Even Leo III stuttered.
“You, when you’re not around, let’s go hunting or something...”
“I didn’t hear everything, but from what I heard, it was ‘Please take pity on me, and let’s meet like before.’”
Alfonso struck the dumbfounded old King again.
“The two of you were engaged before, but then broke off the engagement. What on earth does it mean to meet like before?”
Well, it was strange that his sister-in-law and his uncle were enjoying hunting together without her husband. It was even more so when their history included an engagement and a broken engagement.
The old King was licking his lips. There was no way to defend it. This was a real adulterous offer.
'Wow. I never thought of that. That guy is a step ahead of me...'
The King, as a man who had once been hot-blooded, could sympathize with Alfonso's blow. He would have hit him himself. If someone had an affair with his wife, he deserved to be beaten. If he had just let it go, the one who had stayed silent would have been the foolish one.
However, as the master of the palace, and especially as an old King whose hegemony in the palace was threatened by his own son, he could not tolerate Alfonso's deviation.
“But that’s true. Couldn’t you have done better? If you respect me, how could you... within my court?”
Alfonso cut it off firmly with a cold gaze.
“The reason I didn’t challenge him to a duel and just endured a single punch is because I respect Your Majesty so much.”
The Prince was not a smooth talker, but today his words came out smoothly and were consistent. This was because he was not trying to cover up something inconsistent with words, but was saying something that was truly true.
The King just blinked. He couldn't deny Alfonso's words. If you were caught having an affair with another man's wife, you wouldn't be able to say anything, even if you got hit in the face with a glove. You could fight to the death, cry and beg, or pay a huge amount of compensation. This was the customary law. Even the King couldn't stop you.
Alfonso asked.
“Will you punish me?”
Leo III thought for a moment, then sighed deeply and answered.
“...Wouldn’t my authority be established if I punished someone somehow?”
He was grateful that his son spoke first. Just as he was about to think, 'Alfonso is a very filial son,' the Prince asked him the level of punishment without hesitation.
“Imprisonment? Expulsion from the palace? Banishment?”
Leo III, who had been thinking of a light punishment such as three days of absence from the court, was taken aback. Alfonso responded in a casual tone, saying something like, “These oranges are really delicious.”
“Whatever pleases my father, please do it. Even a dungeon is fine. I will follow you. However.”
Leo III frowned.
'That damn 'however'.'
And 'however' has always been bad. Today was no exception.
“If the Prince is officially sanctioned, there will inevitably be talk about the cause. Rumors will spread.”
“Rumors...”
Prince Alfonso was punished for hitting Duke Cesare. The reason the Prince hit the Duke was...
The King's thoughts wandered here and there. At that point, it was inevitable that he would talk to Princess Julia Helena. Leo III raised his hand with a pale face.
"Son!"
"Yes?"
“Up to there.”
"What?"
The King could not believe his ears.
“There wasn’t a misunderstanding?”
Even Leo III stuttered.
“You, when you’re not around, let’s go hunting or something...”
“I didn’t hear everything, but from what I heard, it was ‘Please take pity on me, and let’s meet like before.’”
Alfonso struck the dumbfounded old King again.
“The two of you were engaged before, but then broke off the engagement. What on earth does it mean to meet like before?”
Well, it was strange that his sister-in-law and his uncle were enjoying hunting together without her husband. It was even more so when their history included an engagement and a broken engagement.
The old King was licking his lips. There was no way to defend it. This was a real adulterous offer.
'Wow. I never thought of that. That guy is a step ahead of me...'
The King, as a man who had once been hot-blooded, could sympathize with Alfonso's blow. He would have hit him himself. If someone had an affair with his wife, he deserved to be beaten. If he had just let it go, the one who had stayed silent would have been the foolish one.
However, as the master of the palace, and especially as an old King whose hegemony in the palace was threatened by his own son, he could not tolerate Alfonso's deviation.
“But that’s true. Couldn’t you have done better? If you respect me, how could you... within my court?”
Alfonso cut it off firmly with a cold gaze.
“The reason I didn’t challenge him to a duel and just endured a single punch is because I respect Your Majesty so much.”
The Prince was not a smooth talker, but today his words came out smoothly and were consistent. This was because he was not trying to cover up something inconsistent with words, but was saying something that was truly true.
The King just blinked. He couldn't deny Alfonso's words. If you were caught having an affair with another man's wife, you wouldn't be able to say anything, even if you got hit in the face with a glove. You could fight to the death, cry and beg, or pay a huge amount of compensation. This was the customary law. Even the King couldn't stop you.
Alfonso asked.
“Will you punish me?”
Leo III thought for a moment, then sighed deeply and answered.
“...Wouldn’t my authority be established if I punished someone somehow?”
He was grateful that his son spoke first. Just as he was about to think, 'Alfonso is a very filial son,' the Prince asked him the level of punishment without hesitation.
“Imprisonment? Expulsion from the palace? Banishment?”
Leo III, who had been thinking of a light punishment such as three days of absence from the court, was taken aback. Alfonso responded in a casual tone, saying something like, “These oranges are really delicious.”
“Whatever pleases my father, please do it. Even a dungeon is fine. I will follow you. However.”
Leo III frowned.
'That damn 'however'.'
And 'however' has always been bad. Today was no exception.
“If the Prince is officially sanctioned, there will inevitably be talk about the cause. Rumors will spread.”
“Rumors...”
Prince Alfonso was punished for hitting Duke Cesare. The reason the Prince hit the Duke was...
The King's thoughts wandered here and there. At that point, it was inevitable that he would talk to Princess Julia Helena. Leo III raised his hand with a pale face.
"Son!"
"Yes?"
“Up to there.”
Leo III was about to shout at Alfonso, asking if he dared threaten the King, but he stopped himself. When he looked at his face, his son’s eyes were now wide open. His clear eyes sparkled. It seemed like he would never get his money back. The old King shook his head as if he had a headache.
“Go ahead.”
Alfonso nodded his greeting with his usual sparkling eyes and turned around to leave. Do those eyes even blink?
Yeah, yeah, do whatever you want!
His son had a wife whose thoughts he had no idea about, and he was becoming the same. Leo III was starting to give up on himself a little.
And a new source of frustration arose.
'Rubina... How dare...'
Duchess Rubina burst into Leo III's bedroom at daybreak and begged him to punish Prince Alfonso severely for his insolence toward her and his violence toward Cesare. She was telling him in detail what her son had done.
'Do I look like I'm wearing hot pants?'
He didn't like it from the banquet hall. Rubina's attitude has been very bad for some time.
Sooner or later, discipline had to be restored. Unlike Marguerite, who would not bend and would fight until her fists were raised, Rubina's strength was her ability to act like a tongue in her mouth with a ghostly look in her eyes. But when she was put in charge of the palace's household affairs, she acted like she was the first wife.
If the favor continues, it will be taken for granted. The King began to seethe.
On the other hand, Prince Alfonso, who left the King's quarters, walked with a refreshed heart. It was actually a lie that he had told his father, "I did not challenge Cesare to a duel out of respect for you."
Duels were fought between men. To Alfonso, Cesare was not even a target for a duel.
The Prince said that the rumor would not spread unless he was subject to sanctions, but that was also not true. Rumors like this do not stop spreading just because they are suppressed.
Even if Alfonso kept his mouth shut, even if Rubina sat down with the servants who had served the honored guests that day in the dining room and threatened them that if rumors spread, she would find out which of them had done it and bury all of them, including their relatives, in the ground.
The rumor spread like wildfire through San Carlo, and whenever the ladies gathered, they would talk about it in twos and threes.
Today, this event was an art appreciation gathering hosted by the Marchioness of Cepinelli. Both Duchess Rubina and Princess Julia Helena were invited.
Duchess Rubina could not attend due to her palace management schedule, but the foreign guest, Princess Julia Helena, gladly accepted the invitation and went out to the garden for a moment while looking at the art collection. A strange sound was heard from the pretty bench in the corner of the garden.
“He hit him!”
“What? Prince Alfonso and Duke Cesare?”
“They fought over...!”
“Oh my, oh my, oh my.”
And this cubic equation wasn't something that could be stopped just because someone who they shouldn't be listening to was nearby.
“...What were the Prince and the Duke fighting about?”
The faces of the three noble ladies who had been chatting heatedly turned bright red. Princess Julia Helena was looking at them with her arms crossed and wearing a fur coat made of ermine. The three ladies trailed off.
“Ah, that... That’s not a story for Your Highness to hear...”
Julia Helena was quick to retort.
“Prince Alfonso is the one I was in talks to marry, and Duke Cesare is the one who could become my husband. Isn’t this something I should be hearing?”
At a dinner with Princess Julia Helena, Leo III proposed Duke Cesare as a husband for Princess Manchike instead of the Prince. The story had already spread throughout the capital.
But that was why they couldn't talk any further. The ladies absolutely did not want to be the ones who caused the royal marriage to fall through.
“Oh, it’s just a rumor going around the streets...”
“It’s not even certain!”
“If you are the ones who are invited to the gatherings of the Marchioness of Cepinelli, the best salon in San Carlo, then this is not just some gossip; it is top-notch information in the world of society.”
The ladies glanced at each other, sullenly.
“Could it be that the refined Etruscan society members are saying things that are not certain?”
Julia Helena looked at them from left to right, threatening them with her eyes. The sight was so powerful that the ladies were startled and groped around, linking arms.
In fact, if the noble ladies had gone to Duchess Rubina and said, 'I heard this story from Mrs. So-and-so,' they would have already lost their lives. One of them asked cautiously.
“What did you say you heard from us...”
"Of course!"
Julia Helena was an expert in this area. She promised confidently.
“I don’t even know the names of Madams.”
This was a pretty solid promise of security. And there was a high probability that it was true. The three women exchanged glances. Finally, one of them spoke.
“...Regarding Duke Cesare’s former fiancée.”
“The Prince and the Duke had a fight.”
“The Prince hit the Duke. In the face. Bam!”
When Julia Helena heard this story, she was truly confused. For reasons the native of San Carlo could never have imagined.
“Was Duke Cesare ever engaged?”
She asked.
“Who is his ex-fiancée?”
The three ladies realized that they had made a mistake. While they were wondering how to escape, Julia Helena stamped her foot.
“Who is that!”
In fact, it would have been right for the Princess to run away since she didn't know their names. However, when there are three of them gathered together, there are bound to be people who can't judge the situation, and the calmness of the lady on the far left was broken.
“de Mare...”
The lady on the far left could not bring herself to say directly, "The Prince's wife," so she started by reciting her last name. Saying, "Duke Cesare asked the Prince's wife to have an affair!" would be too damaging to her dignity.
Fortunately, before she could finish speaking, the middle lady stepped under her dress, cutting off the left lady.
“de Mare?”
Princess Julia Helena's eyes were spinning dizzily. de Mare refers to Countess Ariadne, wife of Prince Alfonso, and Countess Isabella Contarini, maid of honor to Duchess Rubina.
“Who is de Mare?”
Julia Helena had the wrong attitude as a questioner. She asked the question with a preconceived notion.
'Of the two, it would be Isabella, right?'
Surely she wasn't the Princess. Even if Alfonso was a step-brother, it was beyond Julia Helena's common sense to go to her brother's wife, which was about the distance from Trevero to the heart of the Moorish Empire, the Black Octo.
“Was Countess Contarini the former fiancée of Duke Cesare?”
You were engaged? So that's what she said!
Julia Helena's imagination ran wild. Countess Contarini was his former fiancée, but by some accident, she ended up marrying Count Contarini, and so she is acting like this to me!
“Why did they break off the engagement?”
The three wives were truly devastated.
“Go ahead.”
Alfonso nodded his greeting with his usual sparkling eyes and turned around to leave. Do those eyes even blink?
Yeah, yeah, do whatever you want!
His son had a wife whose thoughts he had no idea about, and he was becoming the same. Leo III was starting to give up on himself a little.
And a new source of frustration arose.
'Rubina... How dare...'
Duchess Rubina burst into Leo III's bedroom at daybreak and begged him to punish Prince Alfonso severely for his insolence toward her and his violence toward Cesare. She was telling him in detail what her son had done.
'Do I look like I'm wearing hot pants?'
He didn't like it from the banquet hall. Rubina's attitude has been very bad for some time.
Sooner or later, discipline had to be restored. Unlike Marguerite, who would not bend and would fight until her fists were raised, Rubina's strength was her ability to act like a tongue in her mouth with a ghostly look in her eyes. But when she was put in charge of the palace's household affairs, she acted like she was the first wife.
If the favor continues, it will be taken for granted. The King began to seethe.
On the other hand, Prince Alfonso, who left the King's quarters, walked with a refreshed heart. It was actually a lie that he had told his father, "I did not challenge Cesare to a duel out of respect for you."
Duels were fought between men. To Alfonso, Cesare was not even a target for a duel.
***
The Prince said that the rumor would not spread unless he was subject to sanctions, but that was also not true. Rumors like this do not stop spreading just because they are suppressed.
Even if Alfonso kept his mouth shut, even if Rubina sat down with the servants who had served the honored guests that day in the dining room and threatened them that if rumors spread, she would find out which of them had done it and bury all of them, including their relatives, in the ground.
The rumor spread like wildfire through San Carlo, and whenever the ladies gathered, they would talk about it in twos and threes.
Today, this event was an art appreciation gathering hosted by the Marchioness of Cepinelli. Both Duchess Rubina and Princess Julia Helena were invited.
Duchess Rubina could not attend due to her palace management schedule, but the foreign guest, Princess Julia Helena, gladly accepted the invitation and went out to the garden for a moment while looking at the art collection. A strange sound was heard from the pretty bench in the corner of the garden.
“He hit him!”
“What? Prince Alfonso and Duke Cesare?”
“They fought over...!”
“Oh my, oh my, oh my.”
And this cubic equation wasn't something that could be stopped just because someone who they shouldn't be listening to was nearby.
“...What were the Prince and the Duke fighting about?”
The faces of the three noble ladies who had been chatting heatedly turned bright red. Princess Julia Helena was looking at them with her arms crossed and wearing a fur coat made of ermine. The three ladies trailed off.
“Ah, that... That’s not a story for Your Highness to hear...”
Julia Helena was quick to retort.
“Prince Alfonso is the one I was in talks to marry, and Duke Cesare is the one who could become my husband. Isn’t this something I should be hearing?”
At a dinner with Princess Julia Helena, Leo III proposed Duke Cesare as a husband for Princess Manchike instead of the Prince. The story had already spread throughout the capital.
But that was why they couldn't talk any further. The ladies absolutely did not want to be the ones who caused the royal marriage to fall through.
“Oh, it’s just a rumor going around the streets...”
“It’s not even certain!”
“If you are the ones who are invited to the gatherings of the Marchioness of Cepinelli, the best salon in San Carlo, then this is not just some gossip; it is top-notch information in the world of society.”
The ladies glanced at each other, sullenly.
“Could it be that the refined Etruscan society members are saying things that are not certain?”
Julia Helena looked at them from left to right, threatening them with her eyes. The sight was so powerful that the ladies were startled and groped around, linking arms.
In fact, if the noble ladies had gone to Duchess Rubina and said, 'I heard this story from Mrs. So-and-so,' they would have already lost their lives. One of them asked cautiously.
“What did you say you heard from us...”
"Of course!"
Julia Helena was an expert in this area. She promised confidently.
“I don’t even know the names of Madams.”
This was a pretty solid promise of security. And there was a high probability that it was true. The three women exchanged glances. Finally, one of them spoke.
“...Regarding Duke Cesare’s former fiancée.”
“The Prince and the Duke had a fight.”
“The Prince hit the Duke. In the face. Bam!”
When Julia Helena heard this story, she was truly confused. For reasons the native of San Carlo could never have imagined.
“Was Duke Cesare ever engaged?”
She asked.
“Who is his ex-fiancée?”
The three ladies realized that they had made a mistake. While they were wondering how to escape, Julia Helena stamped her foot.
“Who is that!”
In fact, it would have been right for the Princess to run away since she didn't know their names. However, when there are three of them gathered together, there are bound to be people who can't judge the situation, and the calmness of the lady on the far left was broken.
“de Mare...”
The lady on the far left could not bring herself to say directly, "The Prince's wife," so she started by reciting her last name. Saying, "Duke Cesare asked the Prince's wife to have an affair!" would be too damaging to her dignity.
Fortunately, before she could finish speaking, the middle lady stepped under her dress, cutting off the left lady.
“de Mare?”
Princess Julia Helena's eyes were spinning dizzily. de Mare refers to Countess Ariadne, wife of Prince Alfonso, and Countess Isabella Contarini, maid of honor to Duchess Rubina.
“Who is de Mare?”
Julia Helena had the wrong attitude as a questioner. She asked the question with a preconceived notion.
'Of the two, it would be Isabella, right?'
Surely she wasn't the Princess. Even if Alfonso was a step-brother, it was beyond Julia Helena's common sense to go to her brother's wife, which was about the distance from Trevero to the heart of the Moorish Empire, the Black Octo.
“Was Countess Contarini the former fiancée of Duke Cesare?”
You were engaged? So that's what she said!
Julia Helena's imagination ran wild. Countess Contarini was his former fiancée, but by some accident, she ended up marrying Count Contarini, and so she is acting like this to me!
“Why did they break off the engagement?”
The three wives were truly devastated.
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