At Ariadne's warm welcome, Felicite's expression was on the verge of collapse with emotion.
But she, too, was a member of the San Carlo aristocracy. Felicite knew the significance of Ariadne's choice. Taking her as her first maid would not be in Ariadne's best interest.
“Ari... I’m so grateful, but don’t do this because of me.”
When discord arose among royal women, the simplest way to gauge power was to determine the families of the other's maids. The woman with the most prestigious maids held the greater power, especially if they acquired their maids at the same time.
The only royal ladies currently seeking maids were Ariadne and Isabella. At first glance, it might seem like she only needed to be better than Isabella, whom even the Viscounts and Barons couldn't find. But Ariadne had to look beyond that.
In the current royal structure, Ariadne's true rival was the late Grand Duchess Rubina, whose maid was married to the Marquis de Cepinelli. If Princess Julia Helena were to marry the Grand Duke of Pisano and settle in San Carlo, the late Grand Duchess Rubina would naturally consult her close noble families to find a suitable maid of honor of her age for the new Grand Duchess. She needed to prepare for this.
“It would be much better for you to call Gabrielena or Julia instead of me.”
Felicite, whose knuckles were so thin you could see the bones in her hands, spoke kindly without losing her warmth.
“...I know that much.”
Ariadne's nose stung. If she refused this opportunity, Felicite would have to return to the convent. Ariadne had heard all too well how difficult convent life could be.
“You idiot. Just take it when it’s offered to you.”
An old friend she hadn't seen in a long time tried to make her cry as soon as she saw his face.
In good conscience, Ariadne hadn't avoided such thoughts. She'd lived in the palace too long to be able to cultivate friendship without knowing anything.
The spouse of a Prince who is not currently crowned Principessa, and the acting regent who was not even allowed to marry in the past.
So, Ariadne's titleless palace life was approaching its tenth year. Even if she had deliberately created a Spartan-style course to cultivate her wit, it wouldn't have been as arduous. Now, even when she tried to shut off her thoughts, she found herself doing math as naturally as breathing.
“I called you first because I had other thoughts too.”
Countess de Marais, a woman of calculations, chose Felicite after careful consideration of practical matters.
The notion that royal women competed for prestige based on the rank of their maids was merely a speculative observation. If a family's daughter or daughter-in-law joined a royal woman as a maid, it meant the entire family supported the faction she belonged to. So, strictly speaking, it wasn't the maids who brought in prestige; rather, the royal woman's prestige was simply revealed through her maids.
In order to bring back Julia and Gabriele, who were now in Taranto, we had to first reach an agreement with their family.
The Baldessar family would always support Alfonso and Ariadne. However, she felt it was premature to bring Julia to the forefront. The Marquis of Baldessar was currently considered pro-royal, and if Julia became Ariadne's maid, it would signal to all sides that the Baldessar family was pro-prince.
Ariadne had no intention of rashly exposing her power. She planned to glean the Baldessar family's support for Alfonso until the last moment, using every bit of information the Marquis received from the King to preserve her knowledge, then explode with a bang when the time was right.
The reason Gabriele wasn't considered was quite the opposite. The Marquis of Montefeltro would demand a proper reward if he were to send his daughter-in-law to Ariadne, who had not yet been crowned Princess.
It was understandable, since Ariadne wasn't even allowed to have a maid, let alone live in the palace herself.
However, Ariadne, although she assessed that the Marquis of Montefeltro held considerable weight among the great lords of the Etruscan kingdom, had no intention of buying Montefeltro for as high a price as they wanted.
They undoubtedly hoped to be treated as the founding fathers, as befits the first to board the ship. However, there was absolutely no need to bow down and do so from the outset. They weren't that important. Someday, when the time was right, they would board the ship for a fair price.
The Count Rinaldi, to whom Cornelia and Bedelia belonged, was excluded for slightly different reasons. The Count Manfredi had already been abandoned by the second son, Antonio, and thus Lord Manfredi, who was the Prince's closest confidant. However, the Rinaldi family had not yet been politically active.
Lady Bedelia wasn't yet engaged to Lord Manfredi. While the result of a personal feud, it was a stroke of genius for the Rinaldi family. Since they weren't intermarried with the Manfredi family, which was loyal to the Prince, the Rinaldi family hadn't yet been entangled in the succession battle.
Count Rinaldi was inherently rigid and self-serving. Had he simply accepted Lord Manfredi's proposal, without any knowledge of his circumstances, and simply brought Lady Bedelia with him, the Rinaldi family would have received nothing in return, ultimately being forced to become a shield against Leo III and the complex array of women who supported him.
But above all, Cornelia was Ariadne's friend. It was a shame to exploit her friend's family in such a way. If the Rinaldi family chose sides, Ariadne hoped they would consider the pros and cons for themselves and join on their own.
So she had originally intended to leave the position of maid of honor vacant. That would have the advantage of at least giving her the appearance of being attentive to the King's mood. Then she remembered Felicite.
“That’s just how friends are.”
She wanted to help her friend who was suffering. That was more important than buying Leo III's brief favor, or even gaining sympathy from the social world. She wanted to share the warmth she had gained.
At Ariadne's words, even Felicite's eyes turned red.
“You are such an idiot.”
“You remember when I was little.”
Felicite had known Ariadne since the days when she wore linen dresses sewn by Lagione's tailors, not the luxurious dress shops on the Tiber River. And even then, she remained her friend.
"How could a fool come this far? Just trust me."
Tears welled up in Felicite's eyes. The plain, fair-skinned woman, embarrassed to cry in front of men, blinked her hazel eyes, trying to hold back the tears. Sir Manfredi, who had personally brought Felicite from the convent, shook his head.
“I think the Princess is more beautiful than me... Why can’t I think of something like that in front of Miss Bedelia?”
Sancha, who looked somewhat uncomfortable, stabbed him with a sharp blade.
“Because you can’t take responsibility.”
Beside him, Sir Bernardino grimaced as if he had been hit.
“Oh my. It hurts.”
It was a precise strike, hitting the vital point. Sir Manfredi stared blankly at Shanca with a wounded face.
It was just a casual remark, but Sancha, who had no idea that Manfredi would be hit this hard, was flustered and started talking nonsense.
“No, it’s only natural that Sir Manfredi is less capable than the young lady... No, not the young lady, but Her Highness the Princess.. No, the Countess... ”
Whether it was to see Sir Manfredi or Felicite, even the way Sancha addressed Ariadne wavered back and forth.
The ever-affectionate Felicite defended Sir Manfredi and resolved the situation.
“Sir Manfredi is not without ability.”
Sir Manfredi thought, Why doesn't anyone tell me with certainty that he has the ability?
“I encountered a group of bandits on my way here, but you were so good at repelling them.”
At that moment, the blue-gray eyes of Prince Alfonso, who had been standing back, shone sharply.
“A group of bandits?”
Alfonso had been sitting at the very back of the drawing room, arms folded, happily watching the reunion between his woman and another woman. He didn't want to make a big deal out of their joy. But this was a situation where he couldn't help but intervene.
Sir Manfredi, who was staring straight at Alfonso, straightened his posture and shouted.
“Yes! Your Highness. On my way back from the convent, I was attacked by a group of bandits.”
The carriage Felicite rode in was a basic black carriage without royal insignia. This was to prevent any unnecessary nitpicking from the King later.
Still, the party was escorted by four armed knights, including Sir Manfredi. Unless the enemy was well-armed or had a significant numerical advantage, they were not a likely target.
“The enemy numbered exactly 18, three killed on the spot, one captured and died on the way after interrogation, and the rest escaped.”
“What did the prisoners say? Where did they come from?”
Sir Manfredi watched Alfonso closely. The report he was about to make might require confidentiality.
Alfonso nodded absently. The only people in the room who were more than usual were Ariadne, Sancha, and Felicite.
Felicite was an eyewitness, after all, and the rest were his wife and her closest confidants. He wasn't the kind of man to try to exclude his wife from such a report.
With the Prince's permission, Sir Manfredi obediently finished submitting his report.
“...It's just as the former Northeastern citizen representative said. The prisoner confessed before he died that he was from an island affiliated with the Principality of Asereto.”
"Everyone?"
“That group was like that. They came from the same village.”
“Regular army?”
“Ah... no.”
If someone's regular army were to invade Etruscan territory, that would be a different matter altogether, Sir Manfredi strongly denied.
“The prisoners themselves stated that they were not part of the army under the command of Grand Duke Acereto, and even when we judged them by their armament and combat capabilities, their condition was not that of a regular army.”
Sir Manfredi was a brilliant knight. He was a decent commander, but he excelled especially in individual combat. Even so, it wasn't easy for him to defeat eighteen regular soldiers with just three men.
The poor quality of his opponents also contributed to the fact that Sir Manfredi was able to achieve victory by not only winning but also killing three and taking them prisoner.
Although it was good news that the other party was not a regular army, Prince Alfonso's brow furrowed and would not straighten.
“As far as I remember, the monastery you visited wasn’t that far east.”
Alfonso could not remember Felicite's family name, but he remembered exactly the location of the convent where he had sent his troops.
“Yes, it is the Padini Monastery. It is classified as an Eastern monastery, but...”
"Padini. If we look at the Padini Monastery solely by its location, it's hard to even call it eastern. It's at the western edge of the Cepinelli family's territory."
“In fact, the attack didn’t start immediately after we left the convent, but rather after we had moved quite a bit, so the location where we encountered the bandits was almost certainly in the Midwest.”
If it was in the Midwest, it was near the capital.
The Principality of Assereto and its islands were scattered along the southeastern part of the Etruscan kingdom.
Their appearance in the Midwest meant that the pirates of Asereto had now become land bandits and had penetrated deep into the interior, into the heart of the Etruscan kingdom.
But she, too, was a member of the San Carlo aristocracy. Felicite knew the significance of Ariadne's choice. Taking her as her first maid would not be in Ariadne's best interest.
“Ari... I’m so grateful, but don’t do this because of me.”
When discord arose among royal women, the simplest way to gauge power was to determine the families of the other's maids. The woman with the most prestigious maids held the greater power, especially if they acquired their maids at the same time.
The only royal ladies currently seeking maids were Ariadne and Isabella. At first glance, it might seem like she only needed to be better than Isabella, whom even the Viscounts and Barons couldn't find. But Ariadne had to look beyond that.
In the current royal structure, Ariadne's true rival was the late Grand Duchess Rubina, whose maid was married to the Marquis de Cepinelli. If Princess Julia Helena were to marry the Grand Duke of Pisano and settle in San Carlo, the late Grand Duchess Rubina would naturally consult her close noble families to find a suitable maid of honor of her age for the new Grand Duchess. She needed to prepare for this.
“It would be much better for you to call Gabrielena or Julia instead of me.”
Felicite, whose knuckles were so thin you could see the bones in her hands, spoke kindly without losing her warmth.
“...I know that much.”
Ariadne's nose stung. If she refused this opportunity, Felicite would have to return to the convent. Ariadne had heard all too well how difficult convent life could be.
“You idiot. Just take it when it’s offered to you.”
An old friend she hadn't seen in a long time tried to make her cry as soon as she saw his face.
In good conscience, Ariadne hadn't avoided such thoughts. She'd lived in the palace too long to be able to cultivate friendship without knowing anything.
The spouse of a Prince who is not currently crowned Principessa, and the acting regent who was not even allowed to marry in the past.
So, Ariadne's titleless palace life was approaching its tenth year. Even if she had deliberately created a Spartan-style course to cultivate her wit, it wouldn't have been as arduous. Now, even when she tried to shut off her thoughts, she found herself doing math as naturally as breathing.
“I called you first because I had other thoughts too.”
Countess de Marais, a woman of calculations, chose Felicite after careful consideration of practical matters.
The notion that royal women competed for prestige based on the rank of their maids was merely a speculative observation. If a family's daughter or daughter-in-law joined a royal woman as a maid, it meant the entire family supported the faction she belonged to. So, strictly speaking, it wasn't the maids who brought in prestige; rather, the royal woman's prestige was simply revealed through her maids.
In order to bring back Julia and Gabriele, who were now in Taranto, we had to first reach an agreement with their family.
The Baldessar family would always support Alfonso and Ariadne. However, she felt it was premature to bring Julia to the forefront. The Marquis of Baldessar was currently considered pro-royal, and if Julia became Ariadne's maid, it would signal to all sides that the Baldessar family was pro-prince.
Ariadne had no intention of rashly exposing her power. She planned to glean the Baldessar family's support for Alfonso until the last moment, using every bit of information the Marquis received from the King to preserve her knowledge, then explode with a bang when the time was right.
The reason Gabriele wasn't considered was quite the opposite. The Marquis of Montefeltro would demand a proper reward if he were to send his daughter-in-law to Ariadne, who had not yet been crowned Princess.
It was understandable, since Ariadne wasn't even allowed to have a maid, let alone live in the palace herself.
However, Ariadne, although she assessed that the Marquis of Montefeltro held considerable weight among the great lords of the Etruscan kingdom, had no intention of buying Montefeltro for as high a price as they wanted.
They undoubtedly hoped to be treated as the founding fathers, as befits the first to board the ship. However, there was absolutely no need to bow down and do so from the outset. They weren't that important. Someday, when the time was right, they would board the ship for a fair price.
The Count Rinaldi, to whom Cornelia and Bedelia belonged, was excluded for slightly different reasons. The Count Manfredi had already been abandoned by the second son, Antonio, and thus Lord Manfredi, who was the Prince's closest confidant. However, the Rinaldi family had not yet been politically active.
Lady Bedelia wasn't yet engaged to Lord Manfredi. While the result of a personal feud, it was a stroke of genius for the Rinaldi family. Since they weren't intermarried with the Manfredi family, which was loyal to the Prince, the Rinaldi family hadn't yet been entangled in the succession battle.
Count Rinaldi was inherently rigid and self-serving. Had he simply accepted Lord Manfredi's proposal, without any knowledge of his circumstances, and simply brought Lady Bedelia with him, the Rinaldi family would have received nothing in return, ultimately being forced to become a shield against Leo III and the complex array of women who supported him.
But above all, Cornelia was Ariadne's friend. It was a shame to exploit her friend's family in such a way. If the Rinaldi family chose sides, Ariadne hoped they would consider the pros and cons for themselves and join on their own.
So she had originally intended to leave the position of maid of honor vacant. That would have the advantage of at least giving her the appearance of being attentive to the King's mood. Then she remembered Felicite.
“That’s just how friends are.”
She wanted to help her friend who was suffering. That was more important than buying Leo III's brief favor, or even gaining sympathy from the social world. She wanted to share the warmth she had gained.
At Ariadne's words, even Felicite's eyes turned red.
“You are such an idiot.”
“You remember when I was little.”
Felicite had known Ariadne since the days when she wore linen dresses sewn by Lagione's tailors, not the luxurious dress shops on the Tiber River. And even then, she remained her friend.
"How could a fool come this far? Just trust me."
Tears welled up in Felicite's eyes. The plain, fair-skinned woman, embarrassed to cry in front of men, blinked her hazel eyes, trying to hold back the tears. Sir Manfredi, who had personally brought Felicite from the convent, shook his head.
“I think the Princess is more beautiful than me... Why can’t I think of something like that in front of Miss Bedelia?”
Sancha, who looked somewhat uncomfortable, stabbed him with a sharp blade.
“Because you can’t take responsibility.”
Beside him, Sir Bernardino grimaced as if he had been hit.
“Oh my. It hurts.”
It was a precise strike, hitting the vital point. Sir Manfredi stared blankly at Shanca with a wounded face.
It was just a casual remark, but Sancha, who had no idea that Manfredi would be hit this hard, was flustered and started talking nonsense.
“No, it’s only natural that Sir Manfredi is less capable than the young lady... No, not the young lady, but Her Highness the Princess.. No, the Countess... ”
Whether it was to see Sir Manfredi or Felicite, even the way Sancha addressed Ariadne wavered back and forth.
The ever-affectionate Felicite defended Sir Manfredi and resolved the situation.
“Sir Manfredi is not without ability.”
Sir Manfredi thought, Why doesn't anyone tell me with certainty that he has the ability?
“I encountered a group of bandits on my way here, but you were so good at repelling them.”
At that moment, the blue-gray eyes of Prince Alfonso, who had been standing back, shone sharply.
“A group of bandits?”
Alfonso had been sitting at the very back of the drawing room, arms folded, happily watching the reunion between his woman and another woman. He didn't want to make a big deal out of their joy. But this was a situation where he couldn't help but intervene.
Sir Manfredi, who was staring straight at Alfonso, straightened his posture and shouted.
“Yes! Your Highness. On my way back from the convent, I was attacked by a group of bandits.”
The carriage Felicite rode in was a basic black carriage without royal insignia. This was to prevent any unnecessary nitpicking from the King later.
Still, the party was escorted by four armed knights, including Sir Manfredi. Unless the enemy was well-armed or had a significant numerical advantage, they were not a likely target.
“The enemy numbered exactly 18, three killed on the spot, one captured and died on the way after interrogation, and the rest escaped.”
“What did the prisoners say? Where did they come from?”
Sir Manfredi watched Alfonso closely. The report he was about to make might require confidentiality.
Alfonso nodded absently. The only people in the room who were more than usual were Ariadne, Sancha, and Felicite.
Felicite was an eyewitness, after all, and the rest were his wife and her closest confidants. He wasn't the kind of man to try to exclude his wife from such a report.
With the Prince's permission, Sir Manfredi obediently finished submitting his report.
“...It's just as the former Northeastern citizen representative said. The prisoner confessed before he died that he was from an island affiliated with the Principality of Asereto.”
"Everyone?"
“That group was like that. They came from the same village.”
“Regular army?”
“Ah... no.”
If someone's regular army were to invade Etruscan territory, that would be a different matter altogether, Sir Manfredi strongly denied.
“The prisoners themselves stated that they were not part of the army under the command of Grand Duke Acereto, and even when we judged them by their armament and combat capabilities, their condition was not that of a regular army.”
Sir Manfredi was a brilliant knight. He was a decent commander, but he excelled especially in individual combat. Even so, it wasn't easy for him to defeat eighteen regular soldiers with just three men.
The poor quality of his opponents also contributed to the fact that Sir Manfredi was able to achieve victory by not only winning but also killing three and taking them prisoner.
Although it was good news that the other party was not a regular army, Prince Alfonso's brow furrowed and would not straighten.
“As far as I remember, the monastery you visited wasn’t that far east.”
Alfonso could not remember Felicite's family name, but he remembered exactly the location of the convent where he had sent his troops.
“Yes, it is the Padini Monastery. It is classified as an Eastern monastery, but...”
"Padini. If we look at the Padini Monastery solely by its location, it's hard to even call it eastern. It's at the western edge of the Cepinelli family's territory."
“In fact, the attack didn’t start immediately after we left the convent, but rather after we had moved quite a bit, so the location where we encountered the bandits was almost certainly in the Midwest.”
If it was in the Midwest, it was near the capital.
The Principality of Assereto and its islands were scattered along the southeastern part of the Etruscan kingdom.
Their appearance in the Midwest meant that the pirates of Asereto had now become land bandits and had penetrated deep into the interior, into the heart of the Etruscan kingdom.
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