<Episode 573> Those Who Do Not Move on Their Own
The quick-witted Barbara understood what Isabella wanted. Unfortunately, she did not have that information.
"No, I don't know what the Grand Duke is doing yet..."
Agosto glanced at the restless Isabella. He had looked very good all day.
"My dear."
Isabella shot a glance.
"Don't call me that."
Agosto didn't even pretend to hear Isabella's protest.
"Everything will unfold as it is set, so there is no need to be impatient."
The Grand Duke could not live happily ever after with a woman whose ring finger was not intact. Agosto had been smiling the whole time since he heard the story that Princess Julia Helena's left ring finger was damaged.
'You who have ascended the judgment seat. You have truly severed the speckies.'
To prevent a single event from happening, you must sever the causal link between all related events.
The fact that what should have happened to Ariadne happened to the innocent Julia Helena meant, on the contrary, that Ariadne herself had safely escaped from the incident.
'It has to be at least that level to be considered the chess I chose!'
However, no matter how distinguished she was, in the end, she was nothing more than a mere object. He smiled as he thought of Ariadne.
'On the Day of Judgment, bear the full burden of your sins and burn forever in the fires of hell, my great and capable instrument!'
***
Not only Isabella but also Julia Helena wondered about Cesare's whereabouts.
Viscountess Panamere could not hold out for long and brought up the fact that an engagement letter had been sent to the Princess, and as soon as the Princess heard this, she became anxious.
Immediately after hearing the story about the engagement letter, Julia Helena naturally assumed it was a letter sent by Cesare.
She snatched the engagement letter from Irene's hand and opened the envelope, her heart pounding with anticipation to see how romantic the wording would be. She was confused by the businesslike tone of the letter, but was devastated when she saw the signature of the late Grand Duchess Rubina at the very end.
"Where is the Grand Duke? Where is the Grand Duke himself?"
"It looks like... he still can't get out of bed."
Irene quickly nailed it down before the princess could make a fuss about going to visit her in the hospital.
"They say he refuses all visits."
They were in the same building anyway. It was a villa that wasn't particularly large. Irene made a suggestion.
"If you want to meet the Grand Duke so badly, go out for a walk. Running into him in the garden seems like the quickest way."
"I'm the Grand Duke's fiancée, and you're saying I can't even visit him? Why am I chasing him around outside like someone begging for love?"
"You are someone who begs for love, aren't you?" The voice rose to her throat and then went back down. Instead, Irene corrected the Princess's misconception in a way that would hurt her pride less.
"You are not the Grand Duke's fiancée, Princess. You have no authority to accept the Grand Duke's courtship."
Julia Helena's expression contorted.
"Right now... if I can't even get engaged, what will become of me?"
She wanted to use anything to ensnare Cesare right now. In fact, she didn't like the fact that she had woken up before him.
It would have been the icing on the cake if the first thing she saw upon waking up was Cesare, consumed by guilt as he looked at her fingers and ruined reputation.
The words, "I told you I stopped you," managed to rise from her throat all the way to her lips. Irene gaped, barely managing to suppress her instinct to speak the truth.
"I just hope your father's letter arrives soon."
Irene could no longer bear it and added.
"It is all their own doing."
Even Viscountess Panamere found it difficult to fathom what instructions would come down from Marquis Sinadenos. Whatever it was, that was likely Julia Helena's fate.
***
Cesare lay sprawled on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. The canopy blocked about half of his view. It was a ceiling that was familiar yet strange.
The place he wanted to go now was not Villa Sortone, the most comfortable place. Nor was it the nameless wardrobe in the Queen's Palace where he had found solace in his childhood.
He missed his bedroom at the Pisano estate. No, he wanted to crawl anywhere, not just here and San Carlo.
He wanted to melt and disappear above the surface of the earth.
"Grand Duke, would you like some soup?"
"..."
"If you don't eat anything like that, your health will suffer."
The Grand Duke's steward offered Cesare food, but he did not even show anger. At this, the steward made a proposal of change.
"...Shall I get you some sparkling wine?"
"..."
Nevertheless, when Cesare gave no answer, the skilled butler finally left, leaving his master alone.
Cesare's hands were wrapped in green-stained bandages. They smelled foul because crushed herbs had been smeared all over them.
He covered his face with both hands. A terrible smell of pus mixed with herbs filled his entire nose, but now even the pain—no, the pain was more welcome.
He thought about visiting his mother in the hospital.
***
Rubina visited exactly once, right after Cesare woke up. The purpose of the visit was to get Cesare to sign.
The former Grand Duchess handed the Grand Duke a document. It was a marriage proposal letter addressed to Princess Manchike. Cesare refused to sign.
"Can't you see my hand?"
"If this were an engagement letter to Prince Alfonso's wife, you would have signed it even with a quill in your mouth."
He had nothing to say. Cesare turned his head to the side.
However, Rubina had something to say to him. He was waiting for his mother's apology. But Rubina only rambled on with useless words.
"His Majesty is staying indoors. He is refusing not only my audience but also visits from anyone else."
Rubina grumbled about not being able to meet Leo III, but she seemed satisfied that Isabella's visit had also been blocked.
After holding onto Cesare for quite a while and reminiscing about the old times when Leo III had hurt her feelings, she finished the conversation by saying, "It’s alright since Countess Contarini can’t enter either," and stood up from her seat.
"I must go. I must guard the front of His Majesty's chambers."
Cesare, who had been silently enduring the torture, let out a single scream behind his mother as she stood up.
"Aren't you sorry to me?!"
Rubina slowly turned around while standing.
“Why me?”
The expression on Mother's face. It was impossible to gauge whether she knew what the problem was, yet it was an expression of being offended in some way. Cesare felt something surge up in his solar plexus.
"You created a situation that you can't handle on your own and threw it at me...!"
Rubina immediately cut off Cesare.
"I got you the best wife in the Central Continent."
Here, Cesare realized that his mother knew exactly what the problem was.
"You should be grateful to me, I guess, a beauty?"
Rubina opened Cesare's door just as she was. Turning her back, she spoke venomously.
"My son is useless except for his good looks, but I hope my grandson is a bit smart."
Thanks to the open door, the former Grand Duchess's words were heard by the servants without any alteration.
- Boom!
Having finished her business, she closed the door and left, leaving her grown-up son all alone behind.
***
Leo III refused audiences from everyone, but he stayed confined to his room, receiving all the news. He did so even more out of boredom, as he was lying in bed using illness as an excuse when he was not actually sick.
"What? Princess Julia Helena went to an island with Cesare alone and came back? And she admitted with her own mouth that she lost her virginity after returning?"
Leo III laughed heartily.
"That’s great, that’s great! Even Marquis Manchike won’t be able to hold out any longer!"
He clapped.
"Treat the Princess as if she were Cesare's fiancée! I mean protocol, lodging, and things like that."
"Yes, Your Majesty, I will take action."
She would be invited to more private family gatherings, but in terms of some protocols, her rank would actually be lower than it is now. Currently, as a representative of a successor state, she is treated as a foreign head of state.
Leo III knew of this but did not issue an order, though he would have been pleased if he had known.
"Um, did we—that is, the envoys—leave separately again toward Manchike?"
"...Sending a new envoy right after the Princess ended up like that... would look a bit awkward, so..."
Leo III frowned, unable to understand why that looked bad. Lord Delpiano hurriedly added.
"Instead, Viscountess Panamere has immediately dispatched a representative, and the envoy we previously sent to assert that the marriage treaty has not been broken is on its way to the Principality of Manchike; therefore, both will arrive around the same time. The effect is the same, Your Majesty."
The people who were going slowly were envoys who planned to argue that even if the groom were changed to Grand Duke Cesare, Princess Julia Helena would still become a Principessa within six months.
Lord Delpiano thought that Marquis Manchike would be quite frustrated.
“What else is there?”
"The late Grand Duchess Pisano and Countess Contarini are continuously requesting an audience."
There were also envoys from Trevero, but it was obvious that mentioning them would only provoke Leo III's anger, so he did not bother to remind them.
"Tell Rubina to come in. 'Take this opportunity to completely finish the wedding preparations as well..."
"Ah. Look, Your Majesty."
Lord Delpiano spoke cautiously.
"It is not that I am doing this to take sides..."
"Why is the introduction so long? Get straight to the point!"
"How about you have an audience with the late Grand Duchess Pisano a little later?"
Leo III frowned. He could not gauge the numbers well these days. He could not immediately understand why Sir Delpiano was making such a request. Since he could not get angry every time, the old King chuckled and praised his subject.
"You’ve really turned into a sly snake. There was a time when I could see right through you!"
It was a remark attributing the inability to read the numbers not to his own aging, but to Lord Delpiano's evolution. The retainer smiled awkwardly.
"Ha ha ha..."
Your Majesty has never once seen my sincerity.
Lord Delpiano muttered to himself.
'Because if you had seen me even once, you would have cut off my head.'
Instead, he changed his tune.
"Princess Julia Helena was seriously injured this time."
"Yeah, I heard she burned her finger."
"Yes, they said the burns are quite severe and that she won't be able to use her hands like before."
"Tsk."
Leo III showed displeasure at the news that his prospective daughter-in-law had acquired a disability.
"Hey, try raising the dowry a bit. We are taking a kid who isn't even in good health into the family, and the money they have now isn't nearly enough..."
Lord Delpiano dragged the King, who was alone in the flower garden, back into the real world.
"Your Majesty, Manchike will seek to collect blood money for the Princess's injury."
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