Chapter 231
Summer had arrived.
Even so, in this cool land it was only a mildly bothersome warmth, but the natives were struggling. Nerys switched from silk to muslin and prepared for the northern summer.
In the Grand Duchess’s office, where the sweet scent of summer flowers drifted in through the open window on the breeze—
“Ehehe!”
Talfrin burst into laughter as he read the latest installment scheduled to run in the newspaper. Aidan, who had never seen him so cheerful, looked puzzled.
“Is it that funny?”
“To those who understand what it means.”
Nerys answered with a knowing tone. Talfrin hugged the manuscript as if it were a precious treasure.
“Ah, truly a masterpiece, Your Highness. May I have this?”
“Of course. I’ve already sent the same piece to the newspaper.”
“As expected of Your Highness! Thank you!”
Who would have imagined it at first? That the picky Talfrin would be saying things like, “As expected of Your Highness.”
Curious about the contents, Aidan stared intently at Talfrin. Talfrin hissed like an angry cat.
“Hmph, what’s a clueless swordsman who wouldn’t even understand it doing trying to get his hands on it!”
The two seemed close, but strangely, Talfrin often scolded Aidan. Nerys was used to this atmosphere by now, so she kindly explained.
“It’s really nothing special. We’re still a long way from meeting the Evil Dragon. This chapter just criticizes Natrikh ruthlessly, which is why Lord Talfrin likes it so much.”
Natrikh, meaning ‘snake,’ was the character modeled after the brave Bistor. According to reports from the newspaper company in the Imperial Capital, which broke sales records with every issue, readers harbored considerable antipathy toward him.
Because he bore the obvious imperial trait of Ja’an eyes, eyes of ultramarine blue, they could not attack him too harshly in print, but a fair number of letters from passionate readers arrived, expressing their impatience for Natrikh’s duplicity to be exposed quickly.
“Madam, a letter from Miss McKinnon.”
Butler Gilbert entered the office and placed a thick envelope on a silver tray. As always when something new appeared, Talfrin was the first to make a displeased face.
It was rude to react like that to the correspondence between the Grand Duchess and her friend, but it was hard to blame him. Dianne’s letters were always closer to parcels than simple notes. Smiling, Nerys opened the letter.
“She’s asking if she can come to Maindulante as soon as she graduates.”
It was summer, so Dianne’s long years of study were coming to an end.
“What will you reply?”
“I have to say no. We don’t know what might happen.”
“Indeed. After what happened last time, she’s brave to want to visit again.”
Nerys felt a faint sense of unease at Talfrin’s unnecessary long-windedness. Since when was he so concerned about Dianne’s safety? ( T/N : Seeeeee!! I told you, the author is setting something up between him and Dianne. I can feel it!)
She smiled at him.
“Everyone knows our family is close with the McKinnons. Since we’ve provoked the Imperial Family and Duke Elandria, we always have to consider the possibility that they’ll target the McKinnon family.”
“Yes, that’s why I already have my men stationed with the McKinnons. You instructed me to do that before, did you not?”
“Yes. But it could be dangerous when Dianne travels, so I’d like you to pay special attention then.”
If you fall a step behind in a power struggle, you lose forever. Talfrin bowed respectfully.
“I will obey, Your Highness. I’ll treat that situation as a top priority and investigate it thoroughly.”
“Thank you.”
It was reassuring, but Talfrin’s words completely ignored the possibility that Cledwyn might have other important instructions for him. Nerys pointed it out.
“But what if my husband needs you?”
“Oh, His Grace the Grand Duke doesn’t need me. Even if he did, he’d tell me to carry out Your Highness’s orders first, so there’s no need to worry.”
That did sound like him.
Nerys chuckled and thought of the academy. No one wished more than she did for her academy classmates to graduate safely.
‘Dianne. I miss you.’
Now Nerys clearly understood her feelings.
‘If you, who cherished me from the beginning, hadn’t been there, I might never have had the courage to trust anyone.’
So, may you be safe from all calamities.
Talfrin looked at the smiling Nerys with deep respect.
He and Aidan did not fully understand why their Monarch was creating this serial. They’d only been told that it was to create and spread a story based on the three heroes, but in the adaptation, Bistor’s character had become the villain.
Even so, in Talfrin’s eyes, it could bring considerable benefits.
‘There must be a cause even before the end. If there is peace somewhere, there must also be people who have been forced to stay silent. They need a cause to grasp and rise up.’
Talfrin had done all sorts of things as head of the Shadows, and one indispensable task was manipulating public opinion.
If people realized that this story, which now simply began with “Once upon a time, in a fictional land, lived fictional people…” was in truth a reality more cruel than fiction—
And if they were given just the right wind to stir the vague sense of wrongness they felt—
Maindulante could break through the defenses of the most terrifying power in this world and perhaps gain support. Namely, belief in righteousness.
‘My task is to steer that precise wind.’
He was confident in infiltrating agitators and subtly inciting them. Talfrin smiled.
“My workload has already decreased since Your Highness arrived. The violence among the administrators and subordinate lords has disappeared, and I’ve already cut off the remnants who were quietly siding with Marquis Tipion. And did you know that overall, the nobles’ satisfaction with the central government has increased?”
“Really? Why is that?”
Nerys tilted her head, as if hearing it for the first time. The people of Maindulante always seemed absolutely loyal to Cledwyn and respected him. Was there a reason their feelings were shifting now?
Talfrin chuckled.
“His Grace the Grand Duke is a fair Monarch, but he ascended the throne in difficult times, so he seemed a bit harsh to others. And, well, he’s a little peculiar, isn’t he?”
Being able to describe the perfect Cledwyn Maindulante as “peculiar” was one of Talfrin’s greatest strengths.
“So?”
“So, many people looked up to the Grand Duke but also feared him and felt distant. With Your Highness’s arrival, that balance has been restored.”
“Really? I don’t think I’m that sociable or friendly.”
“Ah, His Grace now takes on that role as well. Your Highness is as fair as the Grand Duke but not as harsh, and in front of Your Highness, the Grand Duke now seems more approachable.”
And, Talfrin added,
“Isn’t Lady Truydd there as well? Lady Truydd is sociable and warm, so she’s perfect for conveying the intentions of both Monarchs more gently. And she’s not the type to abuse that position and act on her own, is she?”
Nerys’s marriage to Cledwyn hadn’t elevated her mother’s social standing by title. However, as the mother of the only Grand Duchess and the woman who had once saved the Grand Duke’s life, the courtesy shown to her could not have been greater.
Talfrin’s use of the term “Lady Truydd” reflected Maindulante’s current mood.
Satisfied with the explanation, Nerys smiled for a moment, then turned a sharp gaze on Aidan.
“Lord Aidan, there is something I need you to handle as well.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Joan has finished the preparations. Everything will be fully uploaded around the time today’s chapter of the novel is released. It’s a dangerous route, so assign people who can protect her thoroughly and support Joan. And while you’re at it, I’d like you to deliver a letter to some important people in the Imperial Capital.”
It was about time Nellusion learned who stood behind the newspaper’s owner.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Unlike Talfrin, Aidan could not analyze the situation or the causes of change in detail, but he did understand one thing. The people of this land were undeniably more vigorous than before.
And that the long history of oppression and lies might finally be nearing its end.
With a heart full of respect, Aidan bowed.
❖ ❖ ❖
The summer sun poured down just as relentlessly on Carten’s old-fashioned great hall.
“Congratulations on your graduation.”
The moment Mrs. Hockman finished speaking, the hall erupted in excited chatter. The graduates fluttered their gowns and immediately began to speak enthusiastically with their friends. Now that they had graduated, they would marry fiancés chosen by their families and go down to some territory, or they would go abroad for a time as maids to some very high-ranking lady. Half boasting, half full of anticipation, they shared their plans for the future.
The graduates, holding bouquets from their families and smiling gracefully, looked so dignified that it was hard to believe they were the same people who had once been first-year students. But the two classmates whose appearances had changed most since freshman year were not here.
“Who would have thought Nerys would become the Grand Duchess?”
“She was already different when she first entered.”
A person who had changed in the best possible way.
“Somehow, the way she always smiled with her eyes… she must have learned it from her mother. Honestly, I always thought Megara was a bit vulgar. I just didn’t say anything because you all seemed to like her.”
“Everyone did. Actually, wasn’t it just Megara’s inferiority complex that made her bully Aidalia?”
And a person who had changed in the worst possible way.
Dianne said nothing to the girls gossiping about the Grand Duchess of Maindulante and the Crown Prince’s mistress. In her eyes, there was not a single person in this hall who had the right to speak like that now.
To be honest, was there anyone here who hadn’t disliked Nerys’s “difference” and looked at her unfavorably? Was there anyone who hadn’t contributed to bullying Aidalia, swept along by their admiration for Megara?
Nerys and Megara’s true natures had not changed, and yet they now spoke as if they had foreseen this future from the start. It was absurd. Without regret, Dianne turned to leave the hall.
She would have, if she hadn’t run into Alecto Isalani at the door.
“Hey, Dianne McKinnon.”
Alecto spoke, slouching. Dianne crossed her arms and answered just as bluntly.
“What?”
“Congratulations on graduating?”
“Were we ever close enough to congratulate each other on graduating?”
“Don’t be picky and just accept it, alright? We’re going to be seeing each other in high society for the rest of our lives anyway. Our families are going to be working together, aren’t they?”
Alecto’s point was correct. If it hadn’t been spoken by the same person who had sneered that they would “never see each other again” a few years ago, Dianne might have agreed calmly. And if the McKinnon Trading Company hadn’t surged forward again after the fall of the Wells family, now holding an economic influence comparable to that of a great noble house.
And if there hadn’t already been several girls who approached her as if they had always liked Dianne and Nerys from the very beginning, ever since Nerys became the Grand Duchess.
Dianne snorted sharply and asked:
“What are you trying to say?”
“Don’t get so worked up, don’t get so worked up. I don’t hold any grudge against you. No, really, none of the girls do. The one who had a grudge against you was someone else, and she’s not here, is she?”
…Sure. Dianne was dumbfounded, but decided to at least hear her out. Seeing Dianne narrow her eyes, Alecto gave a crooked smile.
“You’re going down to your family’s territory for now, right? I’m going straight to the Imperial Capital. My father is planning my debut into Imperial Capital society with great ambition. They say high society is full of people our age. No need to fight, so let’s get along, alright? Please take care of me, Miss McKinnon?”
Having said exactly what she wanted to say, Alecto smiled and walked away.
Dianne could no longer bear staying at the academy. The two years here without Nerys had felt like two hundred.
‘I miss you, Riz.’
You know, I’ve only ever been loved in my life.
Of course I love my family, but the way you love a friend is different. The experience of a relationship that could break at any time being precious and cherished, and in the end becoming part of my life.
So, I hope this anxiety is just my imagination.
Sunlight shone on Dianne’s face as she finally left the great hall and her school days behind.