Chapter : 06
It was spring, but the night still carried the scent of winter.
The wind periodically beat against the windows before passing by.
Despite the late hour, Lil draped a blanket over the shoulders of the queen, who was still attending to state affairs.
Her movements were unusually careful.
“Are you not tired?”
“I’m fine.”
Contrary to her words, fatigue was thickly etched into her slowly blinking eyes.
Seeing Rete like that made Lil’s heart ache.
Now that she had become king, she could afford to take things a little easier.
Yet whatever was driving her this hard, the queen had been pushing herself to the limit, spending days and nights doing nothing but poring over documents.
“Have there been any more marriage proposals today?”
“No. There weren’t any letters addressed to Your Majesty.”
Lil knew that Alben Avihi would not leave without taking precautions.
It would be disastrous if she married someone else while he was away.
So, in a way, preventing marriage proposals from reaching her was only natural for Alben.
I expected it, but it still irritates me.
Though not Alben himself, but Baron Jan Hoshikov.
As her aide, Jan was the first person to inspect the documents sent to her.
Of course, Rete had expected him to follow Alben’s orders since he was one of the duke’s men, but having her documents continually intercepted would become troublesome.
Tap, tap.
Her fingers drummed against the desk at regular intervals.
“Lil. Do you know what time the aide comes to the palace?”
“He usually arrives around the time Your Majesty has breakfast.”
If only all that diligence in coming to the palace so early were spent doing something useful for the country.
“I should tell the aide that unless it’s an important document, he should refrain from bringing things at night. Your Majesty sees every new document that comes in and doesn’t even sleep.”
Although she claimed she was speaking to the aide, her words were essentially a nagging complaint directed at Rete herself.
“I’m afraid you’ll collapse at this rate.”
“You know I won’t collapse from this. My body and mind are much more at ease than they were in the Empire.”
When she had been held hostage, she had stubbornly refused to receive an Imperial education.
To break her spirit, the Emperor of Cornelli had targeted the prisoners who had been brought there alongside her.
Whenever she failed to properly keep up with her lessons, the prisoners were beaten in her place.
The instrument used for the beatings varied according to the emperor’s mood, but the severity was always brutal.
Those people had already been captured through no fault of their own because of the royal family’s incompetence.
And now they had to be beaten in her place as well.
She was young, but she was royalty.
As a member of the royal family, she had to remain constantly on edge, careful not to fall out of the emperor’s favor so that she could protect her people.
Compared to that, how was her life now?
If she was tired, she could close her eyes and rest for a while.
She no longer had to constantly worry about falling out of the emperor’s favor.
And on top of that, Alben Avihi was no longer in the kingdom.
It was the best possible situation.
If he never returned, everything would be perfect.
“Come to think of it, the delegation should be returning soon.”
At those words, Rete’s eyes, which had been quickly scanning the documents, stopped at one place.
It meant that two weeks had already passed since she had given Alben his chance.
Alben Avihi would not be coming back.
Therefore, she would never have to marry him.
By the time he arrived, the Baltar Empire would be in an uproar.
Around this time in her previous life, an assassination attempt against the Emperor of Baltar had taken place.
With the threat of war hanging in the air, an assassin had struck at precisely the moment tensions with an enemy nation were running high.
It was obvious whom the Baltar Imperial family would suspect of being behind the assassination attempt.
And in such a situation, the Kingdom of Arvei, which maintained close relations with the suspected mastermind, the Cornelli Empire, had come seeking diplomatic relations with Baltar.
Wouldn’t it look as though they were merely trying to find out whether the emperor was alive or dead?
The timing was so perfect that no one would consider it a mere coincidence.
The Emperor of Baltar was usually straightforward and boisterous, but when he regarded someone as an enemy, he was like a bull that charged straight at them without thinking of the consequences.
There was no way such a man would leave Alben and the rest of the delegation alone.
Rete felt a strange mixture of emotions.
Relief that the tiresome chain of fate between them had finally ended.
Regret that she had been unable to deal with him herself.
And an inexplicable sense of unease.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure the diplomatic relations will be established successfully.”
Lil spoke to reassure her after seeing Rete’s darkened expression.
“You’re right. The diplomatic relations will be successful.”
As long as Alben Avihi dies on time.
In her previous life, the culprit behind the assassination attempt on the emperor had been a Baltarian noble who opposed the war.
The Emperor of Baltar would eventually discover the truth and realize that he had killed an innocent diplomatic delegation.
Rete intended to use that as leverage to demand other things along with the establishment of diplomatic relations.
Considering the Baltar Emperor’s personality, he would accept her demands as long as they were not unreasonable.
Therefore, Alben Avihi had to die.
His death would make this country even safer.
It was the only way a traitor could atone.
Although it was dawn, the palace was already bustling with servants moving diligently about as they prepared for the day.
When Jan arrived at the office, he found another mountain of marriage proposals waiting for him.
From nobles of the central aristocracy to those living in the farthest reaches of the kingdom.
She was a king, yet her power was weaker than that of any monarch in history.
Perhaps because of this unusual circumstance, all sorts of insignificant nobles from every corner of the country were sending proposals to the queen.
“Good grief. Dealing with all these is a job in itself. If there’s no answer, they should just take it as a rejection. Yet they never get tired of sending them…”
Jan’s complaining mouth abruptly fell silent.
A sharp sword was pressed against his neck.
A chill ran down his spine as cold sweat trickled down it.
Then a familiar voice came from the stranger holding the sword to him.
“Aide. How am I supposed to understand this situation?”
“Y-Your Majesty…”
“‘Article 2, Clause 3 of the Kingdom’s Law. When the crime of treason and its evidence are certain, the immediate execution of the criminal may be carried out with the king’s permission.’ As the academy’s top graduate, there is no way you are unaware of this law.”
“First, please calm down—”
Without removing the sword, Rete walked forward and stood directly in front of him.
“To dare conceal letters addressed to the king. What could be clearer evidence of treason than this? Wouldn’t you agree?”
Gulp.
Jan swallowed nervously.
For a brief moment, he had hoped that the queen’s sword was merely a fake.
But the stinging pain at his throat quickly dispelled that hope.
If I die here… what happens to my money? What happens to my family?
Born as the third son of a minor baronial family in the frontier, Jan had distinguished himself at the academy, surpassed his older brothers, inherited the barony, and eventually caught the eye of the Duke of Avihi and became the queen’s aide.
Looking back on his life, it had been one difficult moment after another—so difficult that he could almost cry from both pride and pity for himself.
And now he might lose everything he had painstakingly achieved because of a mere puppet queen!
“But you must feel wronged as well. After all, you were only doing what the Duke of Avihi ordered.”
At those words, Jan’s head shot up.
Rete watched his trembling eyes and narrowed hers into a smile.
She looked just like a devil tempting someone with the forbidden fruit.
“Want me to spare you?”
“Please spare me.”
His hesitation was brief.
Even if she was a devil, so what?
Rather than lose everything he possessed, it was far better to close his eyes and take the devil’s hand.
If he didn’t take the queen’s hand now, he would lose everything.
His wealth, his family, his power, and even his life.
The Duke of Avihi, who could save him, was currently in a distant foreign land.
And the other nobles were not people he could rely on.
If anything, they were eagerly waiting for his position to become vacant so they could install someone from their own families.
“What do I have to do?”
At his answer, Rete snatched the marriage proposal from a frontier noble that he was holding.
“I don’t expect much from you. Just give me straightforward answers to my questions.”
“…Please, ask.”
“Why exactly does the Duke of Avihi want to become the royal consort?”
When Alben Avihi had first proposed to her, she had assumed he wanted to become the royal consort to gain control of the royal family’s power.
However, if someone already treated as though he were the king wanted the royal family, it would have been faster to simply stage a rebellion.
If his concern was the legitimacy of the royal bloodline, there was also a way for him to become regent without becoming her husband.
Objectively speaking, the nobles and people of this country trusted and followed Alben Avihi more than they did her.
Yet he had rejected all those methods and deliberately chosen the troublesome means of marriage.
He had said that he intended to use her…
But that was essentially the same as saying that there was more to be gained from her being alive than dead.
Or perhaps there was something he could obtain only if she remained alive.
“Well…”
Jan glanced around uneasily.
Rete’s eyes immediately sharpened.
“You don’t seem to have much attachment to life.”
Jan answered without hesitation.
“The Duke of Avihi is in love with Your Majesty.”
“…”
For once, Rete was rendered speechless by such an absurd statement.
She closed her mouth.
“Otherwise, why would he personally take on something as troublesome as establishing diplomatic relations? He ordered me to deal with every marriage proposal sent to Your Majesty, too. It’s obvious that he’s fallen for you.”
Thinking that she didn’t believe him, Jan spilled out his words in a rush.
Rete found not the slightest trace of credibility in his answer and furrowed her brows.
“I see that you truly know nothing.”
At Rete’s reproach, Jan made a disgruntled face.
Looking at his expression of such profound injustice gave her a headache.
In the end, she decided to give up on investigating Alben through Jan and changed the direction of her questions.
“Then I’ll ask you something else. Do you know anything about Lil Foscato?”
“Lil Foscato… You mean Your Majesty’s lady-in-waiting?”
Jan asked in confusion.
The sudden mention of the name left him clearly bewildered.
“You don’t have to pretend you don’t know. I already know that my lady-in-waiting is one of the Duke of Avihi’s people.”
“What? That maid is one of the Duke of Avihi’s people? Since when?!”
Jan practically jumped in surprise.
Alben Avihi had made no attempt to hide from his subordinates the fact that he was having her watched.
Because of that, those assigned to spy on her knew about one another’s existence.
Yet Jan was reacting as though he genuinely knew nothing.
“You really didn’t know?”
“No, is that information definitely correct? Is that maid really one of the Duke of Avihi’s people?”
He seemed genuinely bewildered, asking repeatedly as though he couldn’t believe it.
“She couldn’t be…”
“Why do you think she isn’t?”
The words had apparently slipped out before he could stop himself, because Jan’s mouth immediately snapped shut.
“Not going to tell me?”
His eyes shifted repeatedly between Rete and the sword still pointed at his neck.
Then he let out a deep sigh.
“If I really tell you, I’ll die…”
“Even if you have to die eventually, wouldn’t it be better to live one more day?”
“Well… that’s true. I should live at least one more day…”
Having made up his mind, Jan spoke with a determined expression.
“Before the Duke of Avihi left, he gave me an order.”
He glanced around before lowering his voice.
“He ordered me to frame Lil Foscato together with Count Babelion and have her executed.”
